Arizona volleyball head coach Rita Stubbs built the schedule to get progressively more difficult each week. The Wildcats are 6-0 through the first two weeks and have dropped just three sets. They are riding the longest winning streak in Division I at 17 straight victories. That could all come to an end this week.
Arizona is in Seattle, where it will face San Diego and old Pac-12 foe Washington. Like all coaches, Stubbs built her schedule based on what opponents have done in recent years. The Huskies
made the NCAA Tournament last year. The Toreros were projected to win the WCC this year. They were meant to provide a tough test, and possibly the Wildcats’ first losses since last November.
That could still be the case, although both teams come into the weekend with some question marks. USD and UW both stand at 3-3, although those 3-3 records are not equal.
The Torerors went 0-3 last week at USC, but two of the three matches were against ranked teams. The third came against UC Santa Barbara, a 4-2 team that has dropped both of its matches in five sets to ranked teams.
Up Next for Arizona Volleyball
Arizona Wildcats (6-0) @ Washington Huskies (3-3)
When: Friday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. MST
Where: American Airlines Arena in Seattle, Wash.
Streaming: B1G+ ($)
Stats: Arizona Live Stats
Arizona Wildcats (6-0) vs San Diego Toreros (3-3)
When: Saturday, Sept. 13 at 2 p.m. MST
Where: American Airlines Arena in Seattle, Wash.
Streaming: B1G+ ($)
Stats: Arizona Live Stats
As for UW, the Huskies are definitely having some growing pains this year. They opened the season in Greeley, Colo. taking on the Northern Colorado team that Arizona faced in an exhibition.
Arizona easily handled the Bears 4-0 in an exhibition that included an extra set after the Wildcats had already secured the win. Last year, Arizona beat the Bears twice—once in an exhibition in Greeley and the second time in the NIVC at McKale Center.
It didn’t go that way for the Huskies. They fell to Northern Colorado in five sets to open the season. Then they went to Ft. Collins, Colo. to play Colorado State. That one again went five, although it went in Washington’s favor.
On Sunday, the Huskies were back in Greeley to take on Colgate. In what was the worst result of the weekend, they lost to Colgate in another five-setter.
UW hopes it has righted the ship. It took a set off No. 11 SMU in Dallas last week before beating Stony Brook and Northern Iowa in straight sets.
Stubbs isn’t worried about it, anyway. She doesn’t see the opponents’ early issues as indicative of what they are going to do all season, so she doesn’t think it will come back to haunt the Wildcats as long as they take care of their side of the net.
“San Diego is a phenomenal team, and they’re doing great things,” Stubbs said. “And Washington is still at their place, and they’re going to be a good team…For us, it’s just a matter of taking care of business. I am a firm believer. We do that part, then everything else will line up.”
Besides, she believes the NCAA will see that the Wildcats didn’t schedule a bunch of teams outside the top 200 this year like they did last year. Beyond that, they don’t have control over what teams do.
“I think winning the NIVC at least puts the NCAA on notice, assuming we do what we need to do,” Stubbs said. “And they know that you’re not always in control of how other teams do when you schedule them in advance. And we knew that there were no guarantees, and everyone we scheduled…were going to go off and win and we would go off and beat them.”
The official RPI is not yet out. The KPI is not being tabulated yet, either. Those are the two metrics the NCAA selection committee uses at the end of the year. The metrics that are available give differing opinions of where the Wildcats are.
The Massey Ratings had Arizona climb eight spots to No. 32 after last week. The other positive in Massey is how it views the Big 12. The computer system has 11 of the 15 conference teams ranked in the top 40 right now. That should make games against each other helpful later in the season, much like games in the Pac-12 used to prop up the teams’ RPI.
The unofficial RPI is not as fond of Arizona or the Big 12 as a whole. While the Wildcats jumped over 30 spots after the three matches in Boise last week, that still puts them at No. 63 before Friday’s match against Washington.
More concerning is the fact that other Big 12 teams are not as highly rated by the unofficial RPI. Figstats’ version of the bonus-adjusted RPI has just seven Big 12 teams in the top 40. Arizona State, which at No. 9 is the only Big 12 team in the top 10 of Massey, is down at No. 23 in the unofficial RPI. However, Cincinnati is No. 6 in the early unofficial RPI, making the Bearcats the highest-ranked team from the conference.
This weekend is unlikely to help Arizona much in the unofficial RPI. Washington’s early struggles have the Huskies at No. 123. San Diego is at 94. Fortunately for everyone, there’s a lot of season to be played before tournament selections are made.
