Rubio wins 100th with dramatic flair

But his team, behind the leadership of its five seniors, pulled off a five-set win over Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore., to make Rubio (100-67 at UA) just the second coach to reach that plateau.

"Oregon State played great and were on fire," he said. "They were playing out of their minds. I didn't know if we had it in us to pull out the win."

The 10th-ranked Wildcats (19-5 overall, 11-5 in the Pacific 10 Conference) dropped the first two games and nearly faced a sweep, trailing 3-8 in the third.

"We just were not ready to come in and play a great team. We were flat and unemotional and weren't playing with passion at all and Oregon State was smoking from the very first serve," Rubio said.

The Wildcats, who recorded the majority of their 16 service errors in the first three games, began serving inbounds, allowing them to go on a 10-point run to lead 13-8. They were down several times in the fourth game, but won the match, 10-15, 5-15, 15-9, 16-14, 15-10.

Rubio was at a loss when asked what sparked the Wildcats to pull off the win, which gave them their 11th conference victory, matching the team's best-ever total set in 1993.

"Who knows? If I knew I would bottle it up and sell it," said Rubio, who challenged the team's pride and competitiveness between the second and third game.

Rubio admitted the Wildcats, who clinched their fourth-straight winning Pac-10 season by sweeping Oregon Friday, stepped onto the court unprepared.

"(Oregon) lost a (five set) match to ASU (Friday) and we came in feeling like we were going to roll over them, but they caught us completely off guard," he said.

Senior Carrie Penfield led Arizona with 25 kills. Setter Michaela Ebben, who struggled at the beginning of the match, set a career high in assists with 67.

"It was a collective effort," Rubio said. "I was really proud of the players and the team in this match because it wasn't easy. We really had to scratch and, again, they amazed me."