Women's volleyball splits pair of Bay Area Pac-10 matches

Arizona Daily Wildcat

The Arizona women's volleyball team split a pair of matches in the Bay Area this weekend, falling to No. 4 Stanford on Friday and beating California on Saturday.

With the split, the 13th-ranked Wildcats (10-2) fell to 2-3 in the Pacific 10 Conference.

Behind the hitting of All-American Cary Wendell, Stanford (9-2) beat Arizona in straight sets 15-13, 15-11, 15-9. The Cardinal improved to 5-0 in the Pac-10 with the win.

The Wildcats were led by junior outside hitter Barb Bell, who recorded 14 kills and five block assists. Sophomore Stephanie Venne had nine kills and junior Laura Reckmeyer added seven.

Senior setter Laura Bartsch had 37 assists and 14 digs.

The Cardinal had four players reach double figures in kills: Wendell (14), Eileen Murphee (10), Wendy Hromadka (10), and Marnie Triefenbach (12). Wendell and Lisa Sharpley shared setting duties, collecting 26 and 29 assists, respectively.

Against Cal, Arizona dropped the first game but rebounded to win the next three, winning the match 10-15, 15-8, 15-8, 15-11. The Wildcats were led by Bell's 16 kills and sophomore Michelle Fanger's 13 kills.

The Bears (6-6) fell to 2-4 in the Pac-10.

Two other Wildcats reached double figures in kills: Venne with 12 and sophomore Carolyn Penfield with 11. Sophomore Laura Reckmeyer added nine.

Bartsch had 30 assists and sophomore Michaela Ebben added 18. With her weekend total of 67 assists, Bartsch moved to within 46 of breaking the Arizona career assist record of 3,517 set by Heather McCormack (1989-92).

Ÿ Ron Parsons

Women's golf

The Arizona women's golf team's Maria Baena tied UCLA's Amandine Vincent for first place at 214 at the Dick McGuire Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M. this weekend.

Coming off an eighth-place finish in the Rolex Fall Preview two weeks ago, Baena, a freshman, recorded her first collegiate win in only her second appearance.

UA freshman Krissie Register tied for ninth place at 223, earning her first top-10 finish for the year.

The Wildcats came back to finish third with a 54-hole total of 907, behind first-place UCLA's 884 and Texas' 888. The Bruins recorded their second first-place finish in as many tournaments.

Arizona was on the run during the second day of the tournament on the par-73 course. After being penalized six strokes for violation of the NCAA advice rule, which prohibits more than one coach from giving advice during a round, the Wildcats shot a 299 on the final day to secure the third-place finish.

Arizona will next travel to California for the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., Oct. 20-22.

Ÿ Jacinda Sweet

Cross Country

In only the third race of her career, freshman Amy Skieresz ran away from an elite field to win the Mountain West Classic, helping the Arizona women's cross country team to its third straight victory.

Skieresz finished the 6,000-meter race, at the University of Montana golf course, in 20 minutes, 40 seconds to outdistance a field that included many professional runners.

"Amy's performance was just amazing," UA coach Dave Murray said. "For her to beat the entire field in a meet as good as this is a great accomplishment."

A trio of Arizona runners ended fourth, fifth and sixth to give the 15th-ranked Wildcats the victory with 28 points, comfortably ahead of 14th-ranked Brigham Young. Junior Viola Schaffer crossed the line in 21:22. Behind her was senior Ann Colonna in 21:32 and senior Lisa Quaintance in 21:39.

Freshman Emily Nay, a native of Montana, finished 12th in 21:58, and sophomore Virginia Camacho rounded it out for the Wildcats, finishing 27th overall in 22:39.

"We showed that we are one of the top teams in the country," Murray said.

The 11th-ranked Arizona men ran to a third-place finish with 91 points in the 15-team event, behind first-place BYU (58 points) and runner-up Oregon (61 points).

Sophomore Bob Keino covered the 8,000-meter course in 24:22, which was good for second place. Keino missed his third consecutive victory, trailing first-place finisher Karl Keska of Oregon by just two seconds.

Margarito Casillas finished in 15th place in a time of 25:07.

Ÿ Jason A. Vrtis

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