By Arlie Rahn
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Someone once said, "Winning isn't everything, but losing stinks."
This feeling pretty much sums up the feeling of the Arizona women's volleyball team (9-7, 5-6 in Pac-10). Last weekend, the Wildcats played two of their toughest games in the season back to back. They lost, in Los Angeles, to No. 11 Southern Cal (13-4, 7-3) and No. 3 UCLA (20-2,10-1).
"Anytime you lose, it's tough," UA coach David Rubio said. "But we have to realize that we were playing two of the best teams in the country at their home."
On Friday, Arizona came out like a ball of fire and took it to the higher ranked Trojans. The Wildcats won game one 15-13 and opened up a 12-6 lead in game two. But that's when things started to fall apart. USC went on a 9-0 run and stole game two 15-12.
"I was a little disappointed with our effort from the second game on," Rubio said. "I don't think that we battled very well."
From then on it was all USC, with the Trojans convincingly winning games three and four, 15-7 and 15-8. The Trojans physically dominated the matchup. They hammered 95 kills and hit .362, with four players recording 18 or more kills.
The Wildcats were led by Barb Bell and Melissa Ferris who had 20 and 17 kills, respectively. But the main story of the match was that the team hit .191.
And although the outcome for UCLA was the same, Rubio was much happier with his team's play.
"I think that we were at the same level as USC," Rubio said. "I feel that UCLA is a notch higher than we are at this point. But I think that we played much better against the Bruins than we did on Friday."
The Wildcats had a better defensive game against UCLA. They held the Bruins to only 55 kills and a .218 hitting percentage. But the offense of Arizona hit rock bottom this game by hitting a measly .057.
Rubio does not think that this weekend is something to worry about however.