Arizona
Arizona volleyball fights back against Northern Colorado to advance to NIVC championship game
Arizona volleyball had its first season in 1974. The Wildcats’ record book doesn’t show a single season with more than one double-digit winning streak. Next year, it will.
The Wildcats (23-9, 9-9 Big 12) stretched their current winning streak to 10 matches with a 3-1 (25-20, 27-25, 13-25, 25-18) win over the Northern Colorado Bears (28-8, 14-2 Big Sky) in the Fab 4 of the NIVC on Thursday evening.
Arizona opened the season with an 11-match winning streak. If it wins the NIVC, it will end the season the same way.
“It means a lot,” said Arizona head coach Rita Stubbs. “I’ve asked them to do some things that aren’t always comfortable, in terms of mentally and just stepping out of their comfort zone, sharing different ways and things of that nature. So it’s nice to see me asking them to do that, and they bought in, and wanted to do it as well, and then they get rewarded on the backside of it. So it’s something that I’m very proud of them for. I’m never really big into numbers in terms of wins and losses and whatnot. It’s about putting on a good product and asking the fans to come out and support us, and making the team feel like they are actually doing everything that we’ve been working on.”
The Bears didn’t go away easily. They led by at least three points in every set. They could only hold it in one.
UNC started the match 3-0 and led until the Wildcats went on a 5-0 run to take a 10-9 lead in the opening set. The last tie came at 10 points apiece. Arizona pulled away from there, using another run to go up 17-12. That five-point gap would be the deciding margin.
The Bears appeared to shake off the first set. They took a 19-14 lead in the second with the 19th point coming on their third ace of the set. Then, they started to fade. Arizona went on a 5-1 run to close the lead to one point.
With the Bears leading 20-19, the Wildcats were able to string points together down the stretch while UNC could never get more than one point in a row. UNC has two set points at 24-23 and 25-24, but Arizona fifth-year opposite Jaelyn Hodge wiped both away with two of her 13 kills.
An ace by Carlie Cisneros got Arizona its first set point. The Wildcats didn’t waste it. Sophomore middle blocker Journey Tucker had a career-high 12 kills on the night and none was more important than the one that gave Arizona the second set.
“I thought in the second set it came down to ball-handling errors on our side of the net,” UNC head coach Lyndsey Oates said. “We set a ball out of bounds, and then we picked up two tips that we weren’t able to control…We were in control, and we let them off the hook with a couple easy balls there, and you can’t do that with a good team.”
Hodge felt that serve receive on Arizona’s part was also key. UNC’s third and final ace of the set came just before the Wildcats started their run to get back into it.
“Cleaning up our serve receive, building momentum, and just knowing it’s one point at a time,” Hodge said. “You’re not gonna win it off of one kill or one block.”
It could have deflated the Bears. They could have easily folded. Instead, they tried to repeat the reverse sweep that moved them past the Arkansas Red Wolves the night before.
UNC never trailed in the third set. They were up 8-2 in a flash.
“In the third set, the difference in our favor was service pressure,” Oates said. “We got them in trouble passing-wise.”
They once again aced Arizona three times. This time they followed it up and ran away with the set by a 25-13 margin.
Stubbs tried several things. She put Ana Heath in to set, briefly taking Avery Scoggins out. She had Adrianna Bridges come in at middle blocker for a few points. Arizona was just in too big of a hole to recover. The Wildcats would have to try to rebound to avoid going five.
“We have to play to win versus being afraid to lose,” Stubbs said. ‘And that’s something that they kind of go through and say, ‘Okay, I can do this.’ But the nice thing is that they stayed together and they rallied around one another and put themselves in a position and just continued to fight.”
They did it by communicating with each other.
“I think we knew that team wasn’t going to back down at all,” Hodge said. “They’ve been to so many five sets, so telling ourselves that and calming things down. Resetting every point, and just knowing our offense. I’ll come in when it gets hectic and I’ll be, ‘Okay, Avery, what are we running? Tell us each so it simplifies.’ And then just going out, executing, doing your job.”
The Bears started the set like they had every intention of playing five for the second straight night. They led at 8-5, but Arizona chipped away. UNC’s last lead came at 11-10 in the fourth. The last tie came at 13-13.
The Wildcats went on an 8-2 run to take control of the set and the match. Senior defensive specialist Ava Tortorello punctuated the run with an ace to put her team up 21-15. It was all but over.
Oates felt her team stopped putting pressure on Arizona’s serve receive in the fourth set.
“There was a couple rotations where we needed to score points, and we missed our serve in those rotations, and we just can’t do that,” Oates said. “We can’t give up those points.”
After an off-night against Arkansas State when she played while nursing the flu, UNC sophomore pin Gabi Plecide bounced back to give the Bears a strong offensive option. She led the match with 16 kills and 17 points.
“There’s big things ahead for her in her next two years as a Bear,” Oates said.
It was a big night for Arizona’s middles. In addition to doubling her previous career high in kills, Tucker had six total blocks, including two solo. She did her damage on 19 swings without a hitting error.
Being an offensive option continues to be Tucker’s goal. She is a strong blocker, but her offense is something she’s still working on. Both she and Stubbs felt that the work she has been doing in practice was on display in the match.
“We have been working on me getting off the net after blocking and being an option offensively, especially on transition balls,” Tucker said. “And just making sure I’m watching the pass and being able to see where Avery or Ana goes. And making sure I’m getting up there fast and not too late, so I could be an option up there.”
She didn’t know how well it was working as the match was unfolding, though.
“She didn’t even know those were her numbers,” Stubbs said. “I called her over at the very end, and she was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so surprised.’ And so that tells you how dialed in she is, just doing what she’s supposed to do versus worrying about stats.”
Fellow starting middle blocker Alayna Johnson had her second straight strong match. She had eight kills on 17 swings without an error. She added an assist, three digs, and two total blocks. One of her blocks was solo.
“It just helps the offense in general, getting holes and gaps and just openings with them getting kills,” Hodge said. “I tell every time set the middles. It’s literally past-set-kill. Every time. Set the middles. They get up over the block and they just build their confident to get up higher with just jumping on the blocking or hitting. So I think just getting them involved more in our offense is so important for us to be successful.”
Arizona will face either St. John’s or Bowling Green in the NIVC championship match. Those teams play in the second semifinal on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 5 p.m. MST. The location of the final will be announced when that match is complete.
Regardless of where it is played, it will be the final match in a Wildcat uniform for Hodge, Tortorello, Johnson, Amanda DeWitt, and possibly Haven Wray.
“Carlie was like, ‘It could be your last match in McKale tonight.’” Hodge said. “I was like, trying to take it in. I was like, ‘Okay, walk slow with me. Let me take it in.’ And I don’t think it’s gonna hit until after, and I’m not gonna be in 7 a.m. lift or practice. I think that’s when it’s gonna hit. But it is sad. I think about it all the time.”
Lead photo by Mike Christy / Arizona Athletics
The Pocket Fire burning north of Sedona and sending smoke and ash into Flagstaff has been tricky for firefighters to access because of the steep and narrow terrain through canyons and along cliffsides. These same landscape features mean that many others watching the fire’s rapid progress from afar have worried with little information about which of their favorite hiking trails and scenic viewpoints near Oak Creek Canyon may not look the same again in their lifetimes.
On June 30, the fire perimeter had exceeded 15,000 acres after growing about 4,000 acres overnight. This expansion took the shape of a finger jutting to the west from near the southern edge of the fire while the northern edge broadened along Forest Service Road 9042, where firefighter crews worked to hold it.
For residents of Kachina Village, the community most in the path of the fire’s recent growth and one known to be particularly vulnerable to fire, that northern progress being redirected east and west along the firebreak road was something to celebrate.
For others, fears and questions about singed trails, camping spots, homes and businesses remain.
What is clear is that parts of the distant edge of the popular West Fork trail, which starts at West Fork Trailhead off of U.S. 89A through Oak Creek Canyon and follows West Fork Oak Creek as it twists and turns between stunning red rock canyon walls, are within the Pocket Fire’s active perimeter. The popular panoramic vista from the “Edge of the World” viewpoint in East Pocket off Forest Road 231 was also enveloped by the fire in its early days.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean these areas are unrecoverable as scenic and beloved recreation spots. Wildfires frequently burn discontinuously through forested landscapes, as embers send out new sparks to distant forest patches. So the damage severity from the Pocket Fire in many places is not yet known.
After the Dragon Bravo fire burned 150,000 acres near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in 2025, a Burn Area Emergency Response team concluded months later that only 1% of the 71,000 park-managed acres within the perimeter showed evidence of a “high severity” burn. The rest had better odds of ecological recovery.
To prevent a need for too much of that in one of the Sedona area’s most treasured spots, though, crews on the Pocket Fire have worked out a “really solid plan to protect all of our identified values and to keep fire out of the bottom of Oak Creek Canyon,” said operations section chief trainee Clyde England of the Southwest Incident Management Team in his morning briefing about the fire on June 30.
England emphasized that crews were focused on keeping the fire out of the West Fork drainage, by conducting backburning efforts and building a buffer on the east side, while limiting progress north toward Kachina Village. They are also working with the Arizona Department of Transportation to remove hazard trees along the roadway, so there is “one less risk we have to worry about” if the fire does jump down into Oak Creek Canyon.
“I want to reiterate that the threat component is still there, as fire is coming down into West Fork,” England said. “There is still a potential for the fire to find some fuels and get some alignment with the winds out of the canyon. We don’t anticipate it. That’s why we still got a big presence up there, just in case some unforeseen event pushes some fire out up on the ridge into that (eastern) corner.”
Another area the team is watching is along the southern edge of the fire in Dry Creek near Bear Sign Canyon, the site of a popular 7-mile hiking trail that passes through “a carpet of ferns with views of white Coconino sandstone cliffs,” according to a nearby business offering lodging for hikers. England said the team has been able to “insert people” into that area over the past few days to build hand lines and work with helicopters on bucket drops to help prevent the fire from spreading to the Seven Canyons area and Enchantment Golf Resort.
The historic Fernow Cabin, a former U.S. Forest Service guard station, is also safe so far, England said, thanks to defensive firing by crews over the weekend that will continue for a few more days to keep the structure intact.
On the northwest edge of the fire, a containment line along Forest Service road 231 is “looking really good,” England said, with a recent expansion of the fire map there reflecting defensive fire efforts rather than wildfire growth. That effort will help protect the power lines to communities in Oak Creek from damage. Fire retardant drops and reinforced dozer and hand lines have helped prevent the fire from progressing over the 536 or 535 roads.
“If we can get it down in this canyon, use the weather patterns, the fuels, the rocky terrain to our advantage, we can find a way to choke that out,” England said. “So our ops are all looking good, our confidence is there.”
Addressing the southwestern corner of the Pocket Fire perimeter, England struck a more somber tone, acknowledging expansion of flames across Round Top Mountain toward Secret Canyon.
That’s the reality of wildfire in the American Southwest, scientists say, in an age of the drying and warming influences of climate change combined with ever-expanding human development and juxtaposed against federal funding cuts.
“The anticipation is that some of this fire will be on the landscape for a while,” he said. “There’s just no access and no way to get folks into that country. You might see that fire and that smoke for a while.”
Joan Meiners is the climate news and storytelling reporter at The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Send tips or questions to joan.meiners@arizonarepublic.com or follow her work on Instagram at @joan_bikes_arizona.
Have a news tip? Contact The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com at newstips@arizonarepublic.com.
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Arizona Republic
Flags were lowered in Arizona on Tuesday, June 30, in honor of the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots who died fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013.
Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered flags be flown at half-staff from sunrise through sunset on Tuesday to honor them on the 13th anniversary of their death.
Sparked by a lighting strike, the Yarnell fire became nationally known as an emblem of tragedy. The crew, which was part of a unique municipal-level firefighting effort, was encircled by flames reaching 2,000 degrees with no way out. All but one of them died.
The blaze was the deadliest for U.S. firefighters since 1933 and the greatest loss of U.S. firefighter life since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
“Hotshot crews take on dangerous and difficult firefighting to keep Arizona communities safe,” Hobbs wrote in her a statement. “We recognize and honor the sacrifice and bravery of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. This will always be a day we mark with mourning, reflection, and deep admiration for the members of this crew, their families, and the wildland firefighting community.”
Here’s when flags are traditionally lowered in the United States and the difference between half-mast and half-staff.
What is the difference between half-mast and half-staff?
The terms “half-mast” and “half-staff” both refer to lowering a flag to honor or mourn someone, but they are used in different settings.
“Half-mast” traditionally refers to flags flown on ships or at naval stations, while “half-staff” is used for flags flown on land. In the United States, “half-staff” is the term most commonly used for government buildings and public flag displays.
When are flags flown at half-staff in the US?
In the United States, flags are lowered to half-staff on certain national observances and following the deaths of notable public officials.
According to the Arizona state website, the U.S. flag is flown at half-staff on these days:
- Memorial Day, when the flag should be displayed at half-staff until noon only, then raised to the top of the staff.
- Peace Officers Memorial Day, unless that day is also Armed Forces Day.
- Patriot Day.
- National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
- National Firefighters Memorial Day.
The president of the United States may also order flags to be flown at half-staff after the death of a notable public figure. In those cases, the length of time depends on the person’s role:
- 30 days from the death of the president or a former president.
- 10 days from the day of death of the vice president, the chief justice or a retired chief justice of the United States, or the speaker of the House of Representatives.
- From the day of death until the interment of an associate justice of the Supreme Court, a secretary of an executive or military department, a former vice president or the governor of a state.
- The day of death and the following day for a member of Congress.
The governor may also order flags lowered to half-staff after the death of notable current or former government officials or members of the armed forces who die while on active duty.
In Arizona, the governor can also require that the state flag be lowered at all state, institutional and educational buildings. The law also allows the state flag to be lowered on the death of an incumbent elected state officer for seven days beginning on the day following the death of the officer.
Arizona Republic reporter Laura Gersony contributed to this article.
What to know about coming Arizona Medicaid work requirements
Stephanie Innes interviews Meaghan Kramer at the Arizona state Capitol about the coming Arizona Medicaid work requirements.
Not a day goes by without staff at the Valle del Sol health clinic in Phoenix strategizing about the looming date of Jan. 1, 2027, and what it will mean for their low income patients’ health coverage.
“We will absolutely see a spike in uninsured people. My biggest concern is that people who are eligible will be cut because of the administrative burden,” said Mike Renaud, the CEO of Via del Sol, a federally qualified community health center that sees roughly 15,000 patients per year, half of whom are covered by Medicaid, which in Arizona is called the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System or AHCCCS, pronounced “access.”
“Medicaid is the largest health insurance program for low income people in the United States. It is the largest payor of mental health services in the U.S.”
Jan. 1, 2027 — six months away — is the deadline for Medicaid programs in 43 states across the country, including Arizona, to implement major policy changes that include work requirements and twice-yearly renewals (up from once yearly) for certain enrollees.
In Arizona, the new rules will mark the largest operational change in the history of the AHCCCS program, said Meaghan Kramer, health policy adviser to Gov. Katie Hobbs.
“This is the fastest they’ve ever had to do something that is operationally complex. And this is the most operationally complex thing they’ve ever had to do,” Kramer said. “We’re straining existing systems that are already old and overburdened on the IT side. And we will need much, much more work on the eligibility side than we have now.”
The changes are a result of HR1, the budget reconciliation bill also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025.
The law significantly changes both eligibility and financing of Medicaid, which is a government health insurance program primarily for low-income people that has been in place since 1965. Arizona has had a Medicaid program since 1982.
Having only 18 months to prepare for HR1 is an extremely heavy technological lift for states, including Arizona. Arizona’s aggressive implementation of HR1 changes to SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program once known as food stamps, resulted in the highest rate of loss of SNAP recipients in the country, with about 450,000 dropping from the program from February 2025 to mid-2026.
Recipients and would-be recipients have told The Arizona Republic SNAP benefits are harder to get than ever, with long hold times on the phone and at satellite offices, a dysfunctional website and fewer DES employees to help them.
The new state budget that was recently signed includes a little more than $10 million that will go to technology and to employees who will be handling the increased workload, Kramer said.
Hopefully state officials have learned from the experience with SNAP and “don’t make the same mistake again,” said Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association.
“The computer system needs to improve and the staff needs to be trained,” Humble said. “I’m convinced the majority of people who lose coverage will lose it because of administrative reasons.”
Further complicating the implementation is that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently released a 387-page interim final rule with strict new guidelines about Medicaid work requirements. The new guidelines, for example, do not automatically exempt people with cancer and end-stage renal disease, among other conditions, from the work requirements.
“It is written in a way that makes it clear this is going to be a much more challenging task than any state anticipated,” Kramer said of the guidelines. “States are really struggling with what this new guidance means…The new guidance is going to be much more burdensome on the member, the applicant and the Medicaid agency long-term.”
Twenty-four attorneys general, including Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, and two governors on June 30 sued the federal government over the document, arguing that it illegally narrows congressional protections of medically frail people enrolled in the program.
AHCCCS as of June 1 provided health insurance to approximately 1.8 million Arizonans, which works out to one in four state residents. About one in four of those AHCCCS enrollees or 400,000 and 500,000 people, are expected to be part of the adult expansion population affected by the work requirements and twice-annual renewals.
At Valle del Sol, Renaud said clinicians and other staff are already educating patients and clearing up misinformation.
“We want to make sure they understand this is not a Medicaid cut. It is increased barriers to maintaining coverage.”
Here are seven things to know about the coming changes to Medicaid in Arizona:
Outreach to AHCCCS enrollees begins in September
AHCCCS will be providing communications to impacted enrollees by Sept. 1. Most enrollees probably don’t know whether they are part of the affected adult expansion population and that’s part of the outreach. People covered by AHCCCS can expect to see communications via mail, text and email.
“The goal will be to make sure we are providing reliable information to everybody to reassure folks that they should continue to fill out paperwork when they are prompted by their health plan or by AHCCCS,” Kramer said.
For now, there is nothing Arizonans need to do, AHCCCS officials say, except to keep their contact information current on Health-e-Arizona Plus; respond if AHCCCS or your health plan reaches out to you; and watch for official updates from AHCCCS, not third parties.
The changes won’t hit all affected enrollees at once
Annual AHCCCS renewals (also known as redeterminations) happen on a rolling basis, and that’s how the twice-annual renewals and work requirements will be handled, too, Kramer said.
“If they were redetermined last Jan. 1 they will get redetermined again the next Jan. 1. And then beginning that year they are getting redetermined every six months,” she said.
The work requirements allow for volunteer work and school
Enrollees who are part of the adult expansion population will need to prove they are working at least 80 hours per month or doing another qualifying activity, like job training or education, to avoid losing coverage.
It’s unclear how enrollees prove they are working, volunteering
State officials are able to verify through pay stubs that some people are already meeting the work requirements, but not for everyone. And at some point “self-attestation” − simply saying you are volunteering or in school − won’t be enough.
“What we know is the rules are more aggressive beginning in year two (2028) and there will be some allowance for self-attestations in the first year,” Kramer said.
“But after the first year, beginning Jan. 1, 2028, self-attestations are only permitted once in a continuous eligibility cycle. So that would place an enormous burden on AHCCCS and DES (the Arizona Department of Economic Security), which plays a large role in Medicaid eligibility determinations.”
Kids, seniors and Native populations won’t be affected
Several categories of Arizona’s Medicaid expansion populations will be exempt from the work requirements, such as but not limited to, pregnant and postpartum women, people who are disabled or medically frail, parents and caretakers of children under 14, caregivers of someone with a disability, American Indians and Alaska Natives, and those already meeting similar requirements under SNAP.
Kramer said that state officials are working to determine on their end who is exempt from the requirements in order to lessen the burden on enrollees.
Arizona will be offering short-term hardship exceptions to the work requirements for people who have recently been hospitalized, who need to travel outside of their community for medical care, who live in a county with high unemployment rates, or who live in a community where a national emergency or disaster has recently been declared, Cordoba, the AHCCCS spokesperson, wrote in an email.
Technology could be a problem in Arizona
AHCCCS relies primarily on two major systems to administer eligibility and benefits and both are old.
PMMIS, the agency’s core Medicaid administration system, was originally implemented in 1991 and is currently undergoing modernization, with the updated platform scheduled to go live in October 2027, Cordoba wrote. HEAplus, Arizona’s eligibility system, was implemented in 2013.
“While both systems have undergone significant upgrades and enhancements over time to support changing federal and state requirements, the PMMIS modernization project will not be complete before the federal requirements in H.R. 1 take effect,” Cordoba wrote.
Health entities are trying to prevent AHCCCS coverage losses
Hospitals, community health centers and health plans already connect people to benefits, including AHCCCS. One of the key goals of those entities statewide is to ensure enrollment specialists are all trained on how to interact with the technology that’s going to be used to implement HR1, Kramer said.
All those entities have an interest in keeping people insured. Without health insurance, people tend to wait until their health problems reach a critical point before seeking care, which can cause personal medical debt, bad debt for hospitals, and increased health costs across the board.
The Health System Alliance of Arizona, which includes major Arizona health systems such as Banner Health and HonorHealth is “extremely concerned about eligible individuals losing Medicaid coverage due to the increased renewals and work requirements passed in HR1,” Brittney Kauffmann, alliance CEO wrote in an email.
“Our systems are assessing all options to ensure Medicaid members are aware of these changes.”
Reach health-care reporter Stephanie Innes at stephanie.innes@usatodayco.com or follow her on X: @stephanieinnes or on Bluesky: @stephanieinnes.bsky.social.
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