TUCSON, Ariz. -- The Arizona volleyball team ended its 2017 season with a bang, defeating rival Arizona State in four sets (25-17, 25-17, 23-25, 25-17) on Saturday evening in McKale Center, sending its three seniors,
McKenzie Jacobson,
Jade Turner and
Kimberly Gutierrez out victorious.
"It was nice to finish off the season with a full point for the Territorial Cup," said Arizona head coach
Dave Rubio. "I'm sad that it's come to an end and I was telling the players how much I'll miss seeing them in the gym and helping them get better. To me, it seems like the season just started which is a good thing because when you lose as much as we did this year, most teams would feel the exact opposite. But I wish we had another month to train and I think most of the players would feel the same way."
UA celebrated its three seniors with a pre-match ceremony. The Wildcats bid adieu to a five-year senior
McKenzie Jacobson, who will leave Arizona in the career top-10 for hitting percentage (.295),
Jade Turner, who set career highs this season in kills (1.32/set) and blocks (0.75/set) in a breakout senior year, and one-year transfer
Kimberly Gutierrez, who tied for the team lead in aces (20) and finished second in digs (253) in her lone season in Tucson.
"They're all completely different people and bring totally different personalities to the team," said freshman outside hitter
Paige Whipple of UA's three seniors. "Jade, just her outgoing crazy personality, were going to miss having her in the locker room just messing around all the time and being fun. Mack and Kim, bring a sense of calm to the team, and they're always just chill, laid-back, relaxed. It's definitely hard when seniors graduate, but I think we have a good squad coming back and we'll have good chance of doing well next year."
The victory brought Arizona's final season record to 11-18, 5-15 Pac-12. It also ensured its rival Sun Devils of a winless conference campaign. ASU finished the season 10-22, 0-20 Pac-12.
"Flashing back to last year when we lost up there in five, it was a very close game, and every time we play ASU you know it's going to be an intense match and everyone wants to do really well," said junior outside hitter
Kendra Dahlke. "There's always motivation to beat them, so it's always awesome when we do."
In setter
Julia Patterson's first match back after missing UA's last three with an injury, Arizona's offense was in top form. The Cats had 59 kills on .295 hitting in the match compared to ASU's 46 on .174 hitting. The Cats also out-defended the visitors; Arizona had 73 digs to ASU's 65 and six blocks to ASU's four.
The Cats were dominant for most of the match, winning sets 1, 2 and 3 definitively, with only a late 5-0 Sun Devil run to erase a 23-20 UA lead in the third that denied Arizona of a sweep.
Paige Whipple ended her freshman year with one of her best performances of the year. She had 19 kills on .267 hitting to go along with 10 digs for her sixth double-double of the year. She was one of three Wildcats to post a double-double in the match.
Kendra Dahlke had 13 kills and 12 digs in addition to three aces, all coming during a 10-0 UA run in the fourth set in which Arizona took control of the set.
Patterson had 46 assists, including her 1,000th career dime, and 15 digs for her team-best 12th double-double of 2017.
Makenna Martin tied a career high with 22 digs in the match, her fourth 20-dig match in UA's last 13 matches.
Arizona dominated the first set, led by
Paige Whipple's eight kills on just 12 swings. UA hit .417 as a team in the 25-17 victory.
It was all Arizona in the second set as well as UA put up 20 kills, five apiece from Dahlke, Whipple and
Elizabeth Shelton. Patterson had 18 assists in the set and the Cats won the second, 25-17.
ASU ended the third set on a 5-0 run after UA led 23-20 to deny UA the sweep and force a fourth set.
Arizona used a 10-0 run in the fourth set to turn a 14-11 deficit into a 21-14 lead. The Cats never looked back and won the fourth, 25-17.
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