Matches don’t get much closer than this.
The Arizona Wildcats led Arizona State 14-13 in the fifth set of Saturday’s rivalry volleyball match in McKale Center. The UA thought it had the winning point, but the Sun Devils challenged it and the call was reversed, keeping the set tied. The archrivals traded points, pulling even 15-15. Then ASU scored two in a row, ending the Wildcats’ season.
Arizona fell 25-18, 11-25, 26-24, 11-21, 17-15 on Senior Day, ending an injury plagued season in which few things came easily. The Wildcats finish 15-17 overall and 5-15 in Pac-12 play. ASU improved to 17-14 overall and 9-11 in the Pac-12.
“Definitely was tough … thinking we had won,” senior Julia Patterson said. “Coming back and the call got reversed and then ending like that. It was tough, but we showed grit, fight. We competed.”
Patterson finished the match with 48 assists, placing her at 3,539 career assists and moving into sixth place in UA history.
Patterson wasn’t the only Wildcat to have a big afternoon.
Senior Devyn Cross had five blocks, becoming the eighth Wildcat to have more than 400 of them in her career. She hit No. 400 in the third set.
Coach Dave Rubio called them “two of the greatest players I’ve coached and certainly put on an Arizona uniform.”
“It’s nice that they’re going to leave with some type of statistical mark,” he said. “I think at the end it doesn’t mean that much, but I think in 15 years from now they can look at their name in the history book and be pretty proud of what they’ve accomplished.”
Kamaile Hiapo had 20 digs to give her a UA freshman-record 378. And junior Paige Whipple became the seven Wildcat to have 1,000 career kills. She had 24 Saturday to put her at 1,017.
The Wildcats and the Sun Devils traded sets all day. ASU won the first, third and fifth, while UA took the second and fourth.
UA started off slow, dropping the first set 25-18 while hitting just .079. Wildcats led the second set the entire way. At one point, the Wildcats went on a 6-0 run, punctuated with an ace by Whipple to go up 19-8. ASU scored just three points the rest of the way. UA evened the match at one set apiece in a 25-11 win.
Arizona finished the match hitting .198, while ASU hit .187.
Despite the outcome, Cross said she was proud of the Wildcats’ performance. “This game just showed how much fire our team has, and that even though our season didn’t go the way we wanted, nobody can ever talk down on us and say that we didn’t try. Because we did,” she said. “We did everything we could and never gave up.”
Senior Day was bittersweet for Rubio and his seniors — Cross, Patterson, McKenna Martin, Liz Shelton, Emi Pua’a and Shardonee Hayes. Maybe even more so than usual.
“I feel bad for the seniors, you know, not being able to walk out of McKale with the win, but it overall was a fantastic season,” Rubio said.
