Few people outside the college volleyball community paid much attention to the October announcement that the 2020-21 NCAA Tournament would be reduced from 64 to 48 teams. Especially those at Arizona.
What did it matter, anyway?
This was to be a bridge season for possibly the youngest of coach Dave Rubio’s 30 UA volleyball teams, one picked to finish 10th in the imposing Pac-12, one humbled by last year’s 5-15 conference season.
Eleven of Arizona’s 14 players were new to the roster. Expectations? It wasn’t inconceivable that the Wildcats could finish 2-20 or thereabouts in the nation’s most unforgiving volleyball conference.
Did someone say 0-22?
In a season delayed from late August to late January, the Wildcats canceled their nonconference schedule and arranged to play New Mexico State in an exhibition game Jan. 16 at McKale Center.
If nothing else it would be a confidence-builder, right? Arizona was 19-1 against NMSU in history. And yet the Aggies trounced Arizona, after which NMSU coach Mike Jordan said: “Arizona is talented but young and inexperienced, so it’s important we keep this in perspective going forward.”
When a WAC volleyball team with one victory over Arizona since 1977 discounts its victory, about the only thing left to do is expect the worst.
Guess again.
Arizona enters its final home weekend of the regular season Friday 9-9 in the Pac-12, ranked No. 33 in the AVCA poll, hopeful that the NCAA reacts to requests to return next month’s tournament field to its original field of 64.
The Team From Nowhere is now the Team In the Hunt.
“After that exhibition against New Mexico State, we opened at Utah, the team picked to win the conference,” Rubio says. “It was just the beginning of a gauntlet against Washington, Stanford and Oregon, all Top 25 teams.”
Utah swept Arizona and Rubio didn’t sugarcoat anything.
Arizona volleyball head coach Dave Rubio watches his Wildcats prepare to open their home schedule against No. 11 Washington at McKale Center, Tucson, Ariz., January 29, 2021.
“I was about ready to slit my wrists,” he says. “We were completely uncompetitive. I told the staff that we could go through the season without winning. I tend to be pretty optimistic, but it was that bleak for me.”
The team with freshmen at four positions improved so much and learned how to win so quickly and unexpectedly that two weeks ago senior Paige Whipple walked to the court alone in a mostly dark McKale Center and absorbed the moment.
“I stood in the middle of the court for 20 or 30 seconds and just soaked it in,” Whipple said in a Zoom conference Wednesday.
Wouldn’t it be crazy if the Wildcats end this season playing in the NCAA Tournament after all?
The Pac-12 hasn’t gone soft. Utah, Washington, Oregon, WSU and Oregon are ranked in the top 17 this week. Stanford, the defending NCAA champion, has struggled due to COVID-19 issues and has played just eight matches, but no one wants to play Stanford, either.
“I think we’re in the conversation for the NCAA Tournament, even if it remains at 48 teams,” says Rubio. “It would be much safer to sweep USC this week and go to Washington State and sweep next week. Be that as it may, our goal was to finish in the upper half of the conference, and we’re right there.”
What happened?
A lot of it was that Rubio’s two seniors, Whipple and Akia Warrior, bought into the youth movement and became energetic leaders.
“Because of the leadership of the team, we were able to connect and create a strong camaraderie that can’t be overstated,” says Rubio. “When you’ve got 11 new kids that really didn’t know anything about anything, it became a matter of them responding to coaching and to our seniors and to (sophomore standout) Kamaile Hiapo. It has been impressive to watch it grow.”
Another unexpected development was the emergence of freshman Sofia Maldonado Diaz as an impact player. She has a strong chance to be the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, which is coveted territory in a stacked conference.
Arizona has produced just one freshman of the year in its 36-year conference history: future United States Olympian Kim Glass in 2002.
“Sofia is going to be pretty special in time,” says Rubio. “It’s an amazing story. The fact that she’s as good as she is has been completely unexpected on my part.”
What comes next? Arizona must sweep USC this weekend and then hope the NCAA doesn’t dawdle in making a decision whether to expand the tournament back to 64 teams. Time is running short; the NCAA Tournament is to begin April 14 in Omaha, Nebraska. All matches will be played in Omaha through April 24.
“It needs to happen,” says Rubio. “There’s a groundswell from every conference in the country to expand the bracket. The men’s and women’s basketball tournaments weren’t diminished. Why volleyball? After all we’ve gone through in this odd year — after all every team has gone through — we should reward as many of these young women as possible.”
