It wasn’t pretty, but Arizona volleyball found a way to end its five-game losing streak with a victory over Oregon State on Saturday. The Wildcats won 3-1 (25-23, 25-23, 16-25, 27-25) at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, Calif.
“It was necessary for us to win that match,” said Arizona head coach Rita Stubbs.
It was a struggle throughout. Arizona had difficulty scoring and Oregon State had success against the Wildcats’ block. While Arizona had nine blocks, it also had four blocking errors on the day. The Wildcats only had nine blocking errors in seven matches this season prior to Saturday.
Things were tight in the sets Arizona won. The Beavers took a late lead in all three before Arizona came back. The third set, which Oregon State won, was even less competitive than the 25-16 score suggested. The Wildcats persevered and Stubbs used her bench when she needed to.
Destiny Ndam-Simpson leads the Wildcats with 3.42 kills per set this season, but Saturday wasn’t her day. The Beavers kept her in check, regularly taking her out of the play with their serve. She received 24 serves despite being subbed out halfway through the third set and not returning. Only Carlie Cisneros with 25 receptions in four sets was targeted more. Four of the Beavers’ seven aces were charged to Ndam-Simpson.
“Serve receive will always be her nemesis,” Stubbs said. “She works hard at it, and it works sometimes, and other times it doesn’t, but she’s not afraid to pass. Just gotta continue to rep it a lot, especially when you gotta pass to attack, as you were our kill leader for so long.”
Ndam-Simpson had a season-low four kills, but Cisneros stepped in to pick up some of the scoring load. She had a season high 14 kills on .098 hitting. She added an ace for a team high 15 points. Her nine digs left her just shy of a double-double.
It was the second straight match where Cisneros was offensively aggressive and got into double digits with her kills. After scoring 10 or more kills in eight of the last nine matches last season, it was a return to form for the junior.
“That’s the expectation,” Stubbs said. “And the thing that I appreciate is that her serving and defense got better as the match went on, as well.”
Stubbs also went to her bench to try to get some things going in the third and fourth sets. In the past, when she has taken out one of her outside hitters, Payton Woods has come in. This time it was freshman Hayden Reeder who went in for Ndam-Simpson.
“Hayden’s best skill right now is passing, and we needed someone to pass,” Stubbs said. “It was all from a serve receive standpoint. And then she went in and shanked two balls in a row. But what I appreciated was she fought the entire time. She never gave up, and she celebrated like crazy.”
Reeder ended with three kills, one ace, one total block, and nine digs in about 1.5 sets.
She was joined by fellow freshman Marina Vosloo, who subbed in for Kristen Dear in the third set. Vosloo and Dear have been fighting for the second starting middle blocker position, but Dear has been starting the last few matches.
Vosloo made her presence known in the final parts of the match. She had four kills and hit a team high .571. She also had a block.
“It’s something about the young babies who just go out there and compete and play,” Stubbs said. “They don’t think about anything else.”
As has been the case for most of the season, Arizona’s right sides carried much of the offense. Kennedy Osunsanmi joined Cisneros as the two Wildcats with double-digit kills. She had 10 kills on .348 hitting, one of just two Wildcats to hit over .250 on a day the team hit .155. She added four total blocks for 12 points.
Osunsanmi and fellow opposite Renee Jones combined for 17 of Arizona’s 52 kills. They hit a combined .302 on 43 attempts. They also contributed six total blocks.
Oregon State gave Arizona all it could handle from the start. The Beavers went into the set one media timeout up 15-11. The break helped the Wildcats turn it around, and they closed the gap.
Neither team could pull away. Oregon State took its final lead at 23-22, but Arizona scored the last three points of the set to go up 1-0.
The second set was much like the first. The Beavers once again went into the media timeout up 15-11, and Arizona eliminated the gap coming out of the break. This time, Oregon State’s last lead came at 22-21. Arizona scored four of the final five points to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
It was never close in the third as the Beavers fought to keep the match going. They opened a 6-1 lead over the Wildcats and never looked back. Oregon State’s largest lead of the set was 10 points at 20-10. It was more than enough to force the fourth set.
The fourth was stressful. Arizona maintained a two-point lead through the early part of the set until Oregon State went on a four-point run to go up 14-12.
The Wildcats put together a 5-1 run to retake the lead at 21-19. They were four points from ending the match, but it didn’t come easily. Oregon State had its own 5-1 run to get to set point at 24-22.
Arizona used back-to-back kills by its two right sides to wipe away both OSU set points. A third kill from the right side gave the Wildcats a match point. Arizona couldn’t put away the first one, but they earned a second one. Once again, an Arizona opposite scored. The Wildcats escaped with the four-set victory.
