UA women's volleyball swept by UCLA, USC, drops to 4-5 in Pac-10
Heading into last weekend's matches with the Los Angeles schools, Arizona women's volleyball coach Dave Rubio said he would be happy with a split of the two Pacific 10 Conference matches.
But UCLA and Southern Cal had different ideas. Friday, the 9th-ranked Bruins beat the Wildcats in straight sets 15-10, 15-11, 15-11 at the John Wooden Center in front of 700 fans. A day later, No. 17 USC defeated Arizona 4-15, 15-5, 15-10, 15-10 as a crowd of 350 watched at the Lyon Center.
With the losses, No. 12 Arizona dropped to 12-5 overall, 4-5 in the conference.
Friday, the Bruins' balanced attack was too much for Arizona. UCLA had three players reach double figures in kills, while the Wildcats had just one Ÿ junior outside hitter Barb Bell.
In Saturday's match, the Wildcats were unable to stop Trojan hitters Kelly Kuebler and Jasmina Marinkovic. Kuebler, a second-team All-American last season and last week's Pac-10 player of the week, recorded 19 kills, 14 digs and two solo blocks in the match.
The Wildcats are on the road again this weekend, traveling north to play the Washington Huskies on Friday and Washington State on Saturday.
Ÿ Ron Parsons
Wildcat soccer team drops second straight
The Arizona women's soccer team continued its dismal ways on the road Saturday, when the Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo Mustangs handed the Wildcats their second straight defeat, 5-1, in the Lanzera Classic in San Diego.
The Mustangs (9-1-1) shut Arizona's offense down for the second straight game. The Wildcats (5-7 overall, 1-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference) had only six shots on goal compared to Cal Poly's 29.
Arizona lost both games it played in the tournament and accumulated a combined nine shots on goal while allowing 46. Wildcat freshman forward Nicki Jones is second on the team in goals with five and third in shots on goal with 15. Kelley Keve is second on the team with 17 shots on goal.
Arizona will return to Tucson Sunday to face Pepperdine at Pima Community College West's Aztec Field.
Ÿ Steve Fanucchi
Men's, women's cross country shine in Tempe
The Arizona men's and women's cross country teams won their respective races at the Arizona State Invitational in Tempe on Friday.
Arizona freshman Amy Skieresz easily won her second race in a row, leading the 10th-ranked Wildcat women to their fourth consecutive victory of the season. She covered the 5,000-meter race on ASU's Karsten Golf Course in 17 minutes, 18 seconds.
"Amy is running in a class by herself," UA head coach Dave Murray said.
Arizona placed five runners in the top seven to finish with 19 points. UC-Irvine finished second with 62 points and UCLA finished third with 64.
"This was a good tune-up for us," Murray said. "We really dominated."
Junior Viola Schaffer was next for Arizona, finishing second overall in 17:51. Freshman Emily Nay and senior Ann Colonna finished close together at fourth and fifth overall with times of 18:20 and 18:22, respectively.
Other Wildcat women and their finishing times: senior captain Lisa Quaintance, seventh, 18:24; sophomore Virginia Camacho, 13th, 18:59; and junior Tone Bratteng, 27th, 19:37.
The Arizona men rebounded from a disappointing third-place showing in their last race by narrowly beating Wyoming 47-52 in the 16-team competition.
Ÿ Jason Vrtis