University of Arizona
Yale (1st Round)
Cats Sweep Yale, Advance to Meet BYU on Friday
12/05/2014 | Volleyball
TUCSON – Eleventh-seeded Arizona volleyball was dominant in the NCAA Tournament opening round in McKale Center, downing Yale in three sets (24-12, 25-17, 25-19) to set up a meeting with BYU in the round of 32 on Friday afternoon.
The Wildcats improved to 24-9 on the year, while Yale ended its season at 18-8.
On the line in tomorrow's meeting with BYU will be the program's first Sweet 16 berth since 2005. To do so, the Cats will have to get past a BYU team that went 25-4 in the regular season, won the West Coast Conference and was ranked 12th by the AVCA (better than Arizona's No. 14 ranking).
Senior outside hitter Madi Kingdon led the way for the Cats on Thursday, notching 18 kills on a .410 hitting percentage in the match. The senior, who had eight double-doubles in Arizona's first 23 matches of the season, picked up her ninth consecutive double-double with 18 kills and 14 digs in the three sets.
Taylor Arizobal also turned in a nice effort with seven kills on 20 swings with just one error, good for a .300 hitting percentage.
Arizona outblocked Yale 9.0-3.0 in the match, led by Rachel Rhoades who was in on six of the blocks.
The Cats seemed to be clicking from the opening serve as Penina Snuka ran the offense efficiently (31 assists) and the Wildcats' defense was characteristically superb (19 digs/set).
Kingdon's 14 digs led the way while Ronni Lewis added 11 in the match.
Arizona was strong out of the gates, scoring eight of the match's first nine points. After Yale threatened to get back into the set, UA broke away, scoring 11 of the set's final 13 points to win the first 25-12.
The Wildcats continued their dominance in the second round, using six kills from Madi Kingdon on its way to a 25-17 victory.
The Cats got out to a sluggish start in the third, falling behind 6-3 and then again 8-5. Arizona would use a 7-1 run to take control of the match and never look back. Kingdon registered eight kills in the set to lead Arizona to a 25-17 victory.
Arizona will take on BYU on Friday at 5:30 p.m. MST in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
For more information on Arizona volleyball, visit ArizonaWildcats.com and be sure to follow the team on Twitter (@ArizonaVBall).
