Volleyball team serves up two additional wins

By Bryan Rosenbaum
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 6, 1998

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Nicholas Valenzuela
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Junior outside hitter Raelene Elam bumps the ball during the game against Stanford Sept. 25 while senior middle blocker Keisha Johnson Demps looks on. Elam hit a career-high against Oregon State on Friday as the Wildcats swept Oregon and Oregon State over the weekend. UA is now second place in the Pac-10 Conference.

After continuing its perfect road record this weekend with victories over Oregon and Oregon State, the UA volleyball team now has sole possession of second place in the Pacific 10 Conference, behind Stanford and in front of Southern Cal.

Friday night in Corvallis, Ore., Arizona (13-1, 5-1 in the Pac-10) defeated Oregon State 15-1, 13-15, 15-1, 15-12. Junior outside hitter Raelene Elam hit a career-high .531, with 19 kills. Arizona had a team hitting percentage of .340 compared to .099 for the Beavers.

"Friday night's match was good because we were able to sustain a level of play for a lengthy period of time," UA head coach David Rubio said. "Oregon State is a little underrated, and I felt good at going on the road and playing at such a high level, and coming away with a W."

Sunday afternoon, Arizona defeated Oregon (6-9, 1-4) 7-15, 15-10, 15-4, 15-6. After a day off, the team found starting the match against the Ducks difficult.

"We started terribly against Oregon," sophomore outside hitter Allison Napier said. "We slowly, slowly, slowly got back into it. Other than that, it was a good weekend for us."

Freshman outside hitter Jill Talbot hit .857 with 12 kills, which would have set a new Arizona record for hitting percentage if she met the NCAA minimum of five attack attempts per game.

"On Friday night, I felt, offensively, Jill struggled," Rubio said. "I pointed that out to the entire team at the meeting. I really felt like she came out to prove something on Sunday afternoon."

Elam hit .393 with 14 kills against Oregon, proving once again that she steps up in every match.

"For the number of swings she takes, those numbers are unheard of," Rubio said. "She's certainly the one who's shown she can be consistent from match to match, and one of the reason's we've been successful."

Arizona stays at home this weekend with big matches against UCLA and USC.

"It's a 'beat the UCLA Bruins weekend' here at the University of Arizona," Rubio said. "Everybody's pretty excited and we're riding the coattails of the football game."

Bryan Rosenbaum can be reached via e-mail at Bryan.Rosenbaum@wildcat.arizona.edu.