TUCSON, Ariz. -- Arizona volleyball fell in four sets to Washington State (25-22, 25-21, 24-26, 25-17) on Saturday evening at McKale Center in the Pac-12 home opener.

The Wildcats (7-4, 1-1 Pac-12) were led by Kendra Dahlke's season-high 19 kills; Dahlke was one of three Wildcats with double-figure kills on the night. Elizabeth Shelton (13 kills, .476 hitting) and Devyn Cross (6 kills, .500) hitting were very efficient in the match.

However, UA struggled to slow the Cougar offense, which hit .234 in the match, led by Jocely Urias, who had 10 kills on .556 hitting.

Washington State (12-2, 1-1 Pac-12) also had the advantage from the service line. WSU had six aces to Arizona two, while the Cats had 10 service errors on the night.

Arizona outdug WSU in the match, 54-48. Kimberly Gutierrez led UA with 16 while Dahlke had 13, paired with 19 kills for her third double-double of the year.

Set 1: Washington State broke away late, scoring eight of the final 11 points of the first set to take the opener, 25-22. The Wildcats recorded 23 digs in the first set, led by seven from Kimberly Gutierrez.

Set 2: In the second set, the Cougars hit .259 and, despite five kills from Kendra Dahlke, took the set 25-21 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

Set 3: In the third, the Wildcats stormed back from a 19-14 deficit and fought off a Cougar set point to take the frame 26-24 and force a fourth set. The Cats had two key blocks late, including the set-clinching stuff from Dahlke and Cross.

Set 4: The Cougars were excellent from the service line in set No. 4, out-acing the Wildcats 3-0 in the final set. WSU stormed away from the Wildcats with a 7-1 run to turn an 11-10 lead into 18-11 advantage that the Wildcats were unable to recover from.

He Said It: "In the 26 years that I've been here this is without question the most talented team I've ever had. The talent really lies in the young kids, in the freshman and the sophomores. The good news is that with time we'll only get better, but the bad news is that we don't have a lot of time before the season ends. The clock is ticking every day on us. The reality is that we're only going to be as good as the time allows us to be. A year from now, we'll be a significantly better team, but it's going to be a process and it's going to be painful. Tonight was painful, and it won't get much better when we go to Stanford. It's the land of the giants over there. Then we've got to play Cal. Cal will be a tough match because they're a lot like us, they're young, pretty athletic, trying to rebuild their program. We'll be playing on the road in the afternoon, and then the following week we have to play at home against UCLA. The little hair that I have will probably be all gone, and the grey hair that I have will probably be a lot more grey." - Arizona head coach Dave Rubio

Up Next: The Wildcats, who split week 1 of the Pac-12 season, will head the Bay Area next week to face defending national champion Stanford on Friday (7 p.m. MST) and California (11 a.m. MST).



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