Arizona volleyball won the first two sets against GCU in their exhibition Wednesday evening by scores of 25-17 and 25-22. They were on the way to winning the third when both the Lopes and the weather interfered. GCU saved seven match points before a power outage brought on by the monsoon ended the match with a 27-27 tie in the third.
“We initially we agreed that we would wait 10 minutes and to see what happened because I didn’t want to go into the locker room and come back out because then you got
to warm back up,” said Arizona head coach Rita Stubbs. “But then when they said the whole grid was out, it was like let’s just call it.”
There were reports of downed power lines within the vicinity of McKale Center. The lights finally came back on about 30 minutes after the match was called.
Before the abrupt ending, there were positives and obvious things to work on. There were also noticeable improvements over last Saturday’s Red-Blue scrimmage.
Arizona served well after having a rough night from the service line at the intrasquad scrimmage. Not only did the Wildcats have six aces, but they served well enough to keep the Lopes from running an efficient offense.
“Much better serving,” Stubbs said. Yeah, period. Much better serving until the one Brenna (Ginder) missed when coming in off the bench. We got to be better at that.“
That missed serve came down the stretch when Arizona was trying to close out the match. Ginder had come out of the match while freshman Gigi Whann took the libero jersey but returned to serve toward the end.
GCU hit .129 as a team. Starr Williams, their dangerous outside hitter, had eight kills on .088 hitting. Middle blocker Aubrey Bellus was the only Lope with more than one kill who hit over .250.
As Stubbs mentioned when she met with the media Tuesday afternoon, the team ran a 6-2. While Maria Olga Siapani was on the floor as the starting setter and Britt Carlson was the first opposite to play, Harmony Sample subbed in to set while opposites Kennedy Osunsanmi and Renee Jones came in at various times for Siapani.
“I think having three hitters at all times, or three in the front row and one in the back row at all times, is really nice,” Sample said. “I feel like sometimes when you’re in the 5-1, it can get really outside heavy if the pass isn’t good. But you always have a lot of options whenever you’re in a 6-2. So I think there’s a lot of benefit to it.”
Overall, Stubbs was happy with the offense, although there’s still room for improvement. She said she’d like to see the right side set a bit more when the team is out of system, but that was her only criticism of the setting choices.
“I thought we were making the right choices for the most part, but…the location is where it struggled a little bit,” Stubbs said. “But it gave us an opportunity to use more bodies and more arms, which is something we need to do.”
The two setters were pushing to take the position outright for most of the preseason. That doesn’t mean they weren’t helping each other. Siapani has been with the team since spring, so she has a little more insight into the attackers. Sample has more experience with the kind of offense Arizona is currently running.
“[Siapani] gives me tips on like, for instance, Journey (Tucker) likes the ball more pushed out on her push ball so that kind of helps me when we communicate with each other,” Sample said.
While Sample played in a 6-2 offense at Notre Dame, Siapani is doing it for the first time.
“Back home and at my previous school, I’ve been running the 5-1,” Siapani said. “That was something different. It was fun, though, trying something new. We’ve been working on that for the past week.”
As with Red-Blue, a higher percentage of Siapani’s sets turned into kills, but Sample and her attackers brought her numbers way up from where they were on Saturday. Siapani’s sets turned into assists at a .472 clip. Sample got an assist on .360 of her set attempts. Both had about 50 set attempts in three sets.
Both setters were strong on defense, but Sample had a slight edge there. She ended with a double-double despite splitting time in a three-set match. She had 18 assists and 11 digs. Siapani was just short of a double-double with 25 assists and nine digs.
The starting outside hitters ended with double-digit kills. Carlie Cisneros turned in a double-double with 11 kills and 11 digs. She threw in two blocks (one solo) for a match-high 13.5 points. She hit .333, committing just one hitting error despite never coming off the floor. She also led the match in serve receptions with 25, although she was charged with three reception errors out of GCU’s four aces.
Destiny Ndam-Simpson led the match with 12 kills. Her one block assist gave her 12.5 points. She added five digs.
Ndam-Simpson left the game for part of the third set to give freshman Hayden Reeder some playing time, but when GCU started coming back, she went back in. Her kill with GCU leading 27-26 was immediately followed by the power outage.
All three opposites got playing time, but Osunsanmi was the most effective attacker. She tied freshman middle blocker Marina Vosloo for third on the team with six kills. Osunsanmi had a .286 hitting efficiency.
Jones was the most effective blocker on the right side. Her two kills came on -.071 hitting, but she tied Tucker and Vosloo for the team lead with three total blocks.
The freshmen stood out to Stubbs.
“I thought Marina came in and did a great job as a middle blocker and just a lot of things that we were talking about,” Stubbs said. “I think that Gigi did a phenomenal job. I think she’s pushing Brenna, which is exactly what Brenna wants, and that’s what we want in our gym, as well. So those two definitely stood out. And then Carlie started out slow and then started gaining momentum, so that was good, too.”
Vosloo got her six kills and three blocks in just two sets of play. Whann had one assist, two aces, and 10 digs in three sets. She was a defensive specialist in the first two and took the libero jersey in the third.
The biggest issue for the team as a whole was inconsistency. They started slow in the first two sets, allowing GCU to take a considerable lead both times before coming back to win.
Arizona didn’t take its first lead until 12-11 in the first set. Things got difficult for GCU from there. The Wildcats finished the set on a 13-6 run.
The home team didn’t lead in the second set until Osunsanmi’s kill put them up 19-18. GCU saved two set points, but Arizona closed it out 25-22.
The Wildcats started strong in the third, but this time they let down at the end. They reached match point at 24-19 just as they had in set two. GCU saved six match points this time and finally got a set point at 27-26. Ndam-Simpson wiped that away, but the weather kept Arizona from seeing if it could regroup and close out the match.
“The fact that we couldn’t pass the ball, that we couldn’t score, and then poor set choices…it was just a hot mess right there,” Stubbs said. “And I really wanted it to go to see how we handled it, and so we don’t get a chance to actually see it. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”
The Wildcats end their preseason preparation with an exhibition match at New Mexico on Saturday, Aug. 22 at noon MST. They return to McKale to open the regular season against Prairie View A&M on Friday, Aug. 28 at 6 p.m. MST.
