TUCSON – No. 13 Arizona volleyball was defeated Wednesday night by USC in the Wildcats' penultimate match of the regular season. The Trojans defeated the Wildcats in four sets (25-13, 25-20, 24-26, 25-18) on Taylor Arizobal, Madi Kingdon, Ronni Lewis, Rachel Rhoades and Kennedy Wesley's final regular season match in McKale Center.
The Wildcats (22-9, 11-8 Pac-12) stumbled out of the gates and were never able to overcome their early miscues. UA hit just .156 in the match to USC's .288 hitting percentage.
The loss marks the first time all year that Arizona has lost when winning the third set. It is also Arizona's only loss against a team not currently ranked in the top 25.
“It's a disappointing loss,” said head coach Dave Rubio. “I felt like we weren't very well prepared. I think we played like we've been winning too much. We were very content. USC played on the edge; they were excellent. They beat us at our own game – they served better, they passed better and they defended better than we did. Everything about that match showed that they were prepared and we were not.”
On her senior night, Kingdon used her seventh-consecutive double-double to climb into second place in Arizona history in career kills and digs. She led the team with 19 kills and 17 digs on Wednesday night, giving her 1,877 and 1,310, respectively. The senior also became Arizona's all-time matches-played leader with 126.
The Cats were out-of-sync all night, starting from the service line. UA had nine service aces compared to just two aces, while totaling five receiving errors on five USC aces. The Cats also had 23 erroneous attacks.
USC used an early 7-1 run in the first set to take a commanding lead. The Trojans would roll from there, taking the opening frame 25-13. USC hit .405 in the opening frame while Arizona hit just .116.
The second set would be much of the same. USC took the early commanding lead and never looked back. The Trojans withstood a few Arizona surges to win set No. 2 25-20.
No team held more than a two-point lead in the third set until USC went on a 6-1 run late to lead 22-19. UA would battle back with a 5-0 run to get to set point. USC tied the match with two straight before Arizona ended it with two of its own. UA won the set 26-24 thanks to six kills and a service ace from Arizobal.
The Trojans were able to stunt UA's momentum early in the fourth, racing out to an 8-4 lead and maintaining the four-point advantage through 14-10. Arizona would close within two, but it would be the closest Arizona would get as USC went on to take the fourth 25-18 and take the match 3-1.
Arizona concludes the regular season on Friday at 6 p.m. MST in Tempe against Arizona State.
For more information on Arizona volleyball, visit ArizonaWildcats.com and be sure to follow the team on Twitter (@ArizonaVBall).
