The Arizona Wildcats will complete the first half of their Big 12 conference schedule when they face Utah on Halloween, finishing what UA head coach Rita Stubbs has referred to as “set two” of the season. They hope it’s a turning point before kicking off the second half of league play against BYU on Saturday.
“I want to see us compete,” Stubbs said. “I keep saying that, and I probably will always say that, because that’s the one thing that we’re fully capable of doing…We’re going to be in a hostile environment at BYU. We know that already, and we’re familiar with Utah, so that’s new for the babies, but not new for everyone else. So just being able to fight until the end and not determining ahead of time that is going to be the end.”
If there was any notion that the Big 12 was going to be easy simply because Texas left and there was no program with the kind of history of Stanford, UCLA, or USC, that idea is in the past. UA’s new league features six ranked teams led by No. 8 Kansas. There are five ranked teams that spent last season playing in the Pac-12, including new Big 12 members Arizona State and Utah.
The strength and depth of the league have led to a 2-6 conference record and more of the “close but no cigar” matches that Arizona had in several recent Pac-12 seasons.
The Wildcats have played an opponent that was ranked at the time of the match in five of their eight Big 12 games. While Utah wasn’t ranked when they played UA, the Utes have climbed into the top 25 since then. That means 75 percent of Arizona’s conference matches have been against teams that are currently ranked. The Wildcats have lost five of those six matches.
The most frustrating part is that UA has taken at least one set in three of the five losses to ranked teams. Only TCU and Utah have swept the Wildcats.
They have also played ranked opponents tight in several sets they ended up losing. Baylor was the winner of a 25-23 set in its four-set victory over Arizona. ASU captured a 31-29 set in the first match and a 25-23 set in the second. Both were 3-1 wins for the Sun Devils.
“We’re very close—very, very close—and it’s a matter of decreasing the errors that we make,” Stubbs said. “There are times when people put pressure on us, just by nature of, you know, ASU is super fast. But then there are times when we can control it. Keeping the ball in the court, or serving a ball in, or picking a route that will give us another life versus trying to do a little too much on one particular play.”
If the Wildcats want to turn the corner against the Utes, they will have to do much better in serve receive.
“They pretty much served us off the floor,” Stubbs said about the teams’ first meeting.
One thing Stubbs will not be doing this time is trying to make up for serve receive issues by taking outside hitter Jordan Wilson out of the back row. In the first matchups with the Utes and the Cougars, Stubbs used a defensive specialist for Wilson when she rotated to the back row. That meant taking Haven Wray out of the libero jersey and going with just one libero.
Wray was certainly not the reason for the loss to the Utes. Stubbs has noted that the senior had good passing numbers against both Utah and BYU. However, the change did not have the desired effect. Utah was still able to get the Wildcats in trouble on serve receive, and Wilson did not have a great match against BYU despite not having to worry about passing or defense.
Besides, there are definite disadvantages to taking Wilson off the court. She has consistently been ranked as one of the top outside hitters in the country this season. She contributes in a number of ways.
Need someone who can attack from the back row? Wilson is one of the most effective back-row attackers around. How about someone who has a big impact when a set is on the line? Wilson is one of the best in the game once the score hits 20 points. Looking for a block? Wilson is among the best blockers in the nation at the outside hitter position.
Wilson’s effectiveness as a back-row attacker was an area of frustration for Stubbs last week after the loss to ASU. It wasn’t because of Wilson, though. The setting also determines how effective she is.
“As long as we have the personnel that’s able to pass, then she is fine back there,” Stubbs said. “We just have to set her. We weren’t setting the back row nearly as much as we should have (against ASU). So it was kind of pointless to have someone that was struggling passing that wasn’t attacking out of the back row. So we fixed that so she’ll be back there.”
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about Arizona’s Big 12 record is that the team has a great deal of talent. While it’s true that some key positions are played by underclassmen, those who analyze stats have had Arizona players among the top 25-30 at their positions this year. That includes some of those underclassmen.
Freshman libero Brenna Ginder was one of the top passers at her position a few weeks ago. Sophomore middle blocker Journey Tucker is 11th in the Big 12 for total blocks per set with 1.09. In conference play, she is ranked second with 1.07 b/s.
Wilson is also not the only upperclassman getting noticed. Senior Kiari Robey has been named one of the top middle blockers on several occasions by different evaluators. That continued this week. Jaelyn Hodge is third in the Big 12 with 4.02 kills per set. Her 4.28 k/s in conference matches is second in the league.
If the Wildcats want to make the postseason, all the talented parts need to come together as a consistent whole. Time is getting short.
Lead photo by Catherine Regan / Arizona Athletics