Arizona volleyball stretches winning steak to 9, advances to NIVC semifinals

The rest of the Big 12 is done playing volleyball this season with all six teams that made the NCAA Tournament knocked out by the second round. That leaves Arizona (22-9, 9-9 Big 12) to carry the postseason banner for the league in the NIVC. One more win and the Wildcats would be in the “Fab 4” of the secondary tournament.

The Wildcats did that in relatively quick fashion, defeating the Wyoming Cowgirls 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-17) to stretch their winning streak to nine matches. With another match less than 24 hours away, it was a relief.

“It’s really important because we got to get our rest,” said junior outside hitter Jordan Wilson. “A lot of us have to prepare for finals. A lot of people are studying and have their studies to attend to so I’m happy that we really took care of business. We noticed in the third set that we were starting kind of slow, and we picked ourselves back up. We’re like, hey, this team really likes to go to five. They’re pretty good at doing that, so we got to stay disciplined and take care of business or else they will.”

The Cowgirls (17-13, 7-11 MWC) had gone to five sets in 12 of their 29 matches coming into Wednesday evening.

All three of Arizona’s pins ended up with double-digit kills. Wilson led the way with a double-double. She finished with 13 kills on .276 hitting to go with her 11 digs. She also had a solo block and a service ace to score 15 points.

Carlie Cisneros and Jaelyn Hodge both ended with 10 kills. Cisneros hit .261 while Hodge went for .308. Hodge also had four total blocks and five digs. Cisneros threw in eight digs.

Senior middle blocker Alayna Johnson had a lot to say about it, too. After starting most of her career, she took a place as a reserve for most of her final season. She has been starting the last few matches in the absence of Kiari Robey, and she’s made the most of it.

“She made a big impact,” Wilson said.

Against the Cowgirls, Johnson had seven kills on .545 hitting. She also had an assist, an ace, two digs, and five total blocks (one solo). The blocks were especially big as Arizona blocked Wyoming nine times.

“For AJ, it is just a matter of her just believing that, one, I believe in her, and that her teammates believe in her,” Arizona head coach Rita Stubbs said. “And so it’s just a reminder, hey, jump hard. You’re gonna get rewarded. And Avery (Scoggins) rewarded her a lot today. As a blocker, I mean, there’s no secrets there. That was probably her weakest part of her game, but she’s embracing it more now because she has confidence. And she’s always said she has confidence, but I actually see her confidence now, which is refreshing.”

Arizona didn’t run away with the match, but the Wildcats quietly controlled it most of the time. Wyoming’s last lead in the first set was 2-1. Arizona kept a two- to three-point lead for most of the set. The Cowgirls got within a point at 18-17, but Arizona pulled away at the end with an 8-2 run to go up 1-0.

The Wildcats led wire-to-wire in the second set. Once again, the Cowgirls closed the lead to two points on several occasions. That stalled at 19-17 with Arizona winning six of the last seven points to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

Wyoming got a better start to the third set, going up 4-1. Arizona tied it at six point apiece. The final tie came at 7-7. The Wildcats used a 5-0 run to take an 11-7 lead. The Cowgirls never got closer than two points after that.

Stubbs was able to play more of her bench in the final set. She got senior opposite Amanda DeWitt in and also played Ana Heath at setter briefly. Heath was the starting setter last year but gave way to Pacific Region Freshman of the Year Scoggins this year. During a pause in action, Scoggins went to the huddle of players on the floor and hugged Heath. When Scoggins returned to the court, Heath stayed in to play opposite.

“Ana is definitely Avery’s biggest fan and encouraging her along the way, and Avery was excited to be able to do that back to her while she was out there on the floor,” Stubbs said. “And then when Avery went back in to set, she was like, ‘Oh, I’m setting Ana right now so that I can show her how much I appreciate what she’s doing.’ Because it’s not an easy role that Ana has been put in, but because she’s a great person, and, I mean, she’s just a model citizen. Everything about her is awesome. She is made for the role she’s in, but she still wants more, and so the key is for me to find more for her.”

The first set to Heath was an attack error. The second got Arizona to set point. Then, last year’s starting setter gave her team the kill that put the match away.

Arizona now moves on to face Northern Colorado on Thursday, Dec. 12 at 6 p.m. MST in McKale Center. The Bears engineered a reverse sweep of Arkansas State just before the Wildcats faced the Cowgirls.

Arizona and Northern Colorado played an exhibition match in Greeley, Colorado earlier this year. The Bears took a set off the Wildcats, but it wasn’t the same team they will face on Thursday.

“What I do know about Arizona is they’re in a different lineup than they were when we saw them in early August, mid-August, I should say, as an exhibition match,” UNC head coach Lyndsey Oates. “That’s a long time ago. I just said to the team, ‘We might be familiar with this team,’ and they all went, ‘No, we’re not.’ That seems like a world away in terms of time that we played them.”

Thursday is not a world away, though. The two teams will vie for the right to play for a championship in less than 24 hours.

Lead photo by Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Athletics