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By Sam Spiller
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 21, 1996
Tonight's heavyweight bout features the No. 20 Arizona volleyball team versus No. 2 Stanford. The Wildcats weigh in with a record of 18-8 overall, 9-7 in the Pacific 10 Conference; the Cardinal, at 23-2, 15-1 in the Pac-10.Ladies and gentleman, are you ready to rumble?
Stanford has already clinched the conference title. Last weekend the Cardinal swept Southern Cal and UCLA on the road. Three matches before that it beat then top-ranked Hawaii in Honolulu in four games. Stanford has lost only to Pacific and Washington State this season.
The match takes place at Stanford at 7 p.m. tonight.
The upset-minded Wildcats are only two games behind USC in the Pac-10 standings after wins over Washington and Washington State at McKale Center.
Arizona is on a four-match win streak and has a 5-1 record against its last six ranked opponents.
"Our blocking was the biggest factor this week," UA head coach Dave Rubio said. "Our kids played great defense behind the block and it allowed us to score some points against some very good players."
The players to watch in this match are Kerri Walsh and Eileen Murfee for Stanford and Barb Bell and Erin Aldrich for Arizona. Walsh leads the Pac-10 in serving aces and is fifth in both hitting average and average kills. Murfee is fourth in hitting percentage and second in average blocks.
Bell is fourth in the Pac-10 in average kills and was recently named Pac-10 player of the week. Aldrich has emerged as Arizona's much-needed second option to Bell.
In the teams' previous match this season, Stanford won in four games over Arizona. The Cardinal leads the series 27-2, and 8-1 against Rubio.
Losing streaks seem to keep piling up around the conference, the longest of which is Arizona State's.
The Sun Devils have a nine-game losing streak. Their only wins since Pac-10 play began were against Cal, Oregon and Arizona. Despite its record, ASU is among the nation's leaders in digs. Junior outside hitter Terri Cox is 14th in the nation in kills and fourth in digs.
UCLA broke its four-game losing streak this weekend with a win over Cal. The Bruins have slid to sixth in the Pac-10 standings, two games behind Arizona.
Washington State's Sarah Silvernail is on pace to set new individual conference records at the end of the season. She is currently averaging 5.94 kills per game, which would make her No. 1 should she keep it up.
In addition, Silvernail's .407 hitting average would rank No. 2 in conference history.
In her match against Arizona, Silvernail had 24 kills and 14 digs.
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