Arizona volleyball uses depth but drops 3-setter to UC Santa Barbara
· Yahoo Sports
The Arizona volleyball coaches and players have talked a lot about their depth this year. There’s no point in having it if you don’t use it. The Wildcats used that depth on Sunday afternoon, but it wasn’t enough to pull out a win in an underwhelming 3-0 (25-22, 29-27, 25-23) loss to UC Santa Barbara.
The Wildcats’ outside hitters have struggled to get going in all three regular season matches this season. Stubbs let them work through it against Prairie View A&M and Tarleton State. Against UCSB, she went to the bench.
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After a tough first set and a blocking error early in the second, Stubbs did something she has rarely done over the last two seasons. She took Carlie Cisneros off the floor.
Transfer Payton Woods made her regular season Wildcat debut, playing the front row. When she rotated to the back row, freshman Gigi Whann came in as a defensive specialist.
The change was effective. Woods entered the match with Arizona trailing 8-4 in the second set after dropping the first. The Wildcats went on a 5-1 run to tie the set at 9-9.
“I think it’s just what I’m doing on the sidelines before I get my chance,” Woods said. “I’m really trying my best to be a good teammate, be loud, be energetic, but then I’m also watching my outsides, watching what shots they have open, what the offense is running on the other side. So when I went in, I knew what all the hitters were running, and I felt prepared because I had been scouting the set before.”
They weren’t the first changes in the match. Stubbs had already subbed out starting middle blocker Journey Tucker. Kristen Dear had a good match against Tarleton State on Saturday. She got the call against UCSB with Arizona trailing 19-15 in the first set.
Dear finished the day with two kills, two digs, and 2.0 total blocks. She finished the weekend with seven kills on .313 hitting, 7.0 total blocks (two solo), and three digs in five sets. Her 12.5 total points averaged out to 2.5 points per set over the weekend.
“When you are without two of your starters, who did not show up,” Arizona head coach Rita Stubbs said about her need to sub. “Kudos to Kris and Payton for going in and making things different.”
Dear came in off the bench in all three of Arizona’s matches over the weekend. She played just one set in each of the first two, but got extended playing time for the first time on Sunday.
UCSB dominated the match in almost every statistical category. The Gauchos had 53 kills to 32 by Arizona. They outhit Arizona .256 to .131. They had 65 digs while the Wildcats had just 46.
Had the Gauchos served better, it likely would have been out of reach early. They gave away 18 points on service errors against just three aces. It allowed Arizona to keep sets close and carry leads late into sets. The Wildcats just couldn’t hold those leads.
Arizona led at 23-20 in the second set and had a set point at 24-23. The Gauchos kept attacking to take the 2-0 lead with a 29-27 second frame.
It was even worse in the final set. It looked like Arizona was on the way to extending the contest when it went up 21-17 in the third. The Wildcats won just two more points.
“I thought we got a little afraid,” Stubbs said. “We were afraid to make a mistake. Therefore, you make a mistake. You start second guessing yourself. And even in that second set, they just kept ramming the ball at us, and we got lax, like they were gonna give up. I don’t know why we would ever think that. And so, I told them that the worst thing that could ever happen is someone questions your work ethic or questions your fight, which those are two things that you always are in control of.”
Arizona had trouble scoring, but there were other problems. They couldn’t stop UCSB outside hitter Sophia Wendlick from scoring. Similar to Woods, Wendlick was aggressive throughout.
“She just kept swinging,” Stubbs said. “She kept swinging the entire time, and which is why when Payton went in, it made a huge difference because she was just gonna blast it the entire time. So then you know we got to be able to put the ball in the window where she could be successful.”
Like Arizona’s Destiny Ndam-Simpson, Wendlick transferred from Creighton in the offseason. She played even less than Ndam-Simpson did while in Omaha. She showed that she can get things done when given a chance, earning the tournament MVP designation.
If there was a bright spot for the Wildcats both in the match and over the weekend, it was the play of opposite hitter Renee Jones. Jones got her opportunity when Britt Carlson went down with an injury. On Sunday, she had seven kills on a team-high .375 hitting. She also contributed 6.0 total blocks (one solo) and three digs. She was second on the team with 10.5 points.
Jones was the only Wildcat to make the seven-player all-tournament team. She did it with 19 kills on .350 hitting while sharing time with fellow right side Kennedy Osunsanmi in Arizona’s 6-2 offense. She added 8.0 total blocks, including two solo blocks. She also had four digs in three matches. She was good for 24 points overall and 2.7 points per set.
“I was very pleased with how she responded to in theory being that third right side, and then going in when Britt was not able to play,” Stubbs said. “So that’s huge.”
Arizona will need its outside hitters to find their way as the competition ramps up next week. The team will travel to Creighton to take on the Bluejays, Tulsa, and Pepperdine. Both Cisneros and Ndam-Simpson had slow starts in the opening weekend’s matches. The middles and right sides were able to fill the gaps against Prairie View A&M and Tarleton State, but it wasn’t enough against the Gauchos.