For any Arizona team, a loss to Arizona State is a serious one. It was no different for the volleyball team this weekend.

With a 3-3 conference record, a win over the Sun Devils would have put the Wildcats (12-5 overall, 3-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference) above .500 and possibly into the national rankings.

But the Sun Devils (8-5, 3-4) continued their dominance over the Wildcats, winning in five games, 6-15, 8-15, 15-12, 15-13, 15-12 Friday night in Tempe.

"The biggest thing is that our kids are fighting a tradition playing ASU, and have been since I've been here," UA coach Dave Rubio said. "There wasn't enough belief in the way that we played in the end. We played not to lose instead of to win."

The win was almost entirely due to the strong play of ASU's Terri Cox and Tracy Heflin. Cox racked up 27 kills and 20 digs, while Heflin had 68 assists making sure the ball was in Cox's hands.

For the first time all season, someone other than Barb Bell led the Wildcats in kills. Freshman middle blocker Erin Aldrich led the team with 18 kills while Bell had 17.

Micheala Ebben recorded a career-high 61 assists, with 2 serving aces, eight digs, three kills and four blocks.

"I'm really pleased with where Micheala is," Rubio said. "She's really making some nice strides."

The Wildcats also played an exhibition match against the U.S. National Team last night. The National Team finished up a six-school tour with a hard-fought three-game victory over Arizona.

In the first game of the match, the Wildcats jumped out to an early lead. Arizona was able to score 15 points in that game before the United States caught up and won, 17-15.

"It was a really great game," Rubio said. "It's nice to know our group is doing the right thing."

The 15 points scored by the Wildcats were the most points scored against the National Team by any college team, including Stanford. The National Team was able to win the next two games fairly easily, 15-4, 15-6.

"I thought we played really hard, especially in the first game," Aldrich said. "I told my team before the match that we could definitely beat them a game or two. I really thought that we could play them close."

The National Team includes former Wildcat Caren Kemner, who said this will probably be her last game for the National Team. She said that it was hard for them to play the college teams because so much rode on every point.

"I thought it was really nice for everybody to allow me to come back here," Kemner said. "I was the first player to join the national program, and I left UA to do it. Now my last match 12 years later with the National Team is at UA."

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