'Terrible' play offsets volleyball team's Friday night upset of UW

Nicholas Valenzuela Arizona Daily Wildcat Senior UA setter Michaela Ebben (1) goes up for a block along with Erin Aldrich (5) during Arizona's victory over Washington State Friday night, 15-2, 11-15, 7-15, 15-10, 16-14. Ebben became the fourth UA player to record 2,000 assists in her career in the Wildcat's loss to Washington yesterday.

"I don't need to lose a match to know we're not playing well. I've known it for three weeks."

All this is coming from a coach whose team is 11-2 overall and set a school record for home victories at 13 with its five-game upset over previously unbeaten and sixth-ranked Washington State Friday night at McKale Center.

The 5-15, 15-6, 12-15, 8-15 loss yesterday against the unranked Huskies, however dropped the Wildcats to a 3-2 mark in the Pacific 10 Conference. The defeat was just Arizona's second loss in its last 30 home matches against unranked opponents.

"I've been saying all along that we haven't been playing well and even though we've won some close matches we haven't played well and that's everyone's responsibility including myself," said Rubio, who was noticeably disgusted after the match, crumbling up the final statistics and throwing them in the garbage.

"I can't put a uniform on and play for these guys," said Rubio, who was an all-conference and all-state volleyball selection at California State Northridge in the 1980s. "They have to do it for themselves. It doesn't matter if we beat (defending champions) Stanford and then lose to Washington. The record still says that we're 1-1."

After splitting the first two games Arizona overcame a 3-6 deficit and took a 11-7 lead. Three UA attacking errors later, they were down, 11-12 and eventually dropped the game. The Wildcats hit just .186 (64 kills, 31 errors, 177 attacks), compared to the .314 hitting percentage Washington posted.

Arizona's middle blocker core, which Rubio labeled one of the best in the conference and nation earlier this season, combined for just 5.5 blocks.

"We were terrible in the middle," Rubio said.

The four middles - senior Stephanie Venne, junior Keisha Johnson, sophomore Erin Aldrich and redshirt freshman Marisa DaLee - stayed in the locker room long after the loss to discuss the match.

Outside hitter Carrie Penfield led the Wildcats with 13 kills and Raelene Morton, also an outside hitter, added 11. Washington's Makare Desilets led all players with 22 kills.

Arizona has become known for pulling off wins when a loss was just a few errors away but was unable to do it Sunday.

"They were down 8-14 against Arizona State and 9-13 with Washington State in a rally (scoring) game. You don't think I was nervous on the bench?" Washington coach Bill Neville said. "I told them they have to keep the pressure on and keep it up."

The Huskies jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the fourth game. The Wildcats pulled to within two, trailing 9-7 on a cross court kill by junior Keisha Johnson but a UA setting and blocking violation and three attacking errors gave Washington the upset.

"The whole thing caught up to us," said setter Michaela Ebben, who Sunday became only the fourth player in UA history to record 2,000 career assists. "We need to be the team with the lead and finish the game. It needs to be the reverse situation."

"The bottom line is we need to get better. We can't rely on last minute heroics," Rubio said.

The players, however, remained optimistic as they prepare for Friday's match on the road against Stanford.

"We could do some things a lot better as a team," Ebben said. "(Losses) happen. We'll take it as a learning experience and work past it. We just need to move on because we still have a lot of Pac-10 games to go."