It's the most exciting play in volleyball.
 
Outside hitter vs. middle blocker. The attacker leaps with a full head of steam and clubs the ball with a full swing.
 
On the other side of the net, the blockers leap with their hands straight up and extend over the net.
 
A point hangs in the balance.
 
In most instances, the offense has the advantage – they can go cross-court, they can go down the line or they can go over the top, just needing a touch or to land it in the court. Not against Arizona. Not against Devyn Cross.
 
Her height, length and athleticism mean that most of these confrontations end in a block and a point for the Wildcats and a familiar chant from the Arizona fans.
 
"Roof! Roof! Roof!"
 
This weekend, Cross has a chance to move into the Arizona career top 10 in blocks, needing seven more to tie Melissa McLinden (1982-85) for 10th all-time with 244 career blocks. Where she ultimately ends up in the Arizona career record books will play out the remainder of 2019, but Cross has already established herself as one of the best middle blockers in Arizona history.
 
"Devyn is an elite player and certainly one of the best middles we've ever had here," said head coach Dave Rubio.
 
Rubio mentions Marisa DaLee, Dominique Lamb and Cursty Jackson as the bar for middle blockers that he has coached.
 
"Right now," said Rubio, "the numbers that Devyn is putting up are better than any of those guys."
 
As a junior in 2018, Cross was named an honorable mention AVCA All-American, becoming Arizona's first middle blocker to earn All-America honors since McLinden in 1985. She became the fifth Wildcat in school history to post a season with 2.00 kills/set (2.06) and 1.00 block/set (1.03) while hitting better than .350 (.361) and first since 2004 (Jolene Killough) and was one of two players in the conference to post a 2 K/1 B/.350 hit% season last season.
 
What is she doing as an encore in 2019?
 
Five weeks into her senior season, Cross leads the NCAA in hitting percentage (.519) and is the only player in the country hitting above .500. She's done it while averaging 2.14 kills and 0.92 blocks per set.
 
"I'm just going out every single day with the mindset of 'this is it, this is my last chance,'" said Cross. "Why not give it everything I've got?"
 
That mindset has helped her become one of the most dominant players in the country.


 
The road she has taken to reach this point has been far from ordinary. Most of the elite players in the Pac-12 have a similar story: highly recruited out of high school, choosing the best fit for them between a handful of the best volleyball schools in the country.
 
Cross' path to Arizona was different. It started with a phone call.
 
"Her high school coaches, Mark and Debby Lewis, called me before Devyn and (Elizabeth Shelton)'s junior year," said Rubio. "I hadn't heard from those guys in 20-25 years."
 
Prior to coming to Arizona, Rubio was the head coach at Cal State Bakersfield from 1987-1991. He would recruit nearby high schools, flush with Division II talent. One of those pipelines was Desert High School, a small high school on the Edwards Air Force Base in California.
 
While it was a good source for Rubio's Cal State Bakersfield teams in the 1980s and 90s, Desert High School has not been producing Division I talent in recent years.
 
"We're a small school in the middle of nowhere," said Cross. "Coaches never visited. I can't remember the last player in any sport that went DI."
 
This changed when Rubio received a call in the summer of 2014.
 
"Mark said 'Dave, I finally have a couple of players that will be good for you.'"
 
The very next day, Rubio made the trip not many Division I coaches make: a trek to Edwards Air Force Base to Desert High School.
 
"We were just outside Calico, California, in this tiny gym," remembered Rubio. "And there were Devyn and Liz. They couldn't play a lick of volleyball, but man they were athletic."
 
From there it moved quickly. Rubio and the coaching staff knew they had to act fast.
 
"We knew other schools would jump in as soon as word got out," said Rubio. "So we got them on campus right away, offered them right away, and were really fortunate to get both of them."
 
Five years later Cross is a senior and Shelton is a redshirt junior. Four years in the program has transformed them from the raw elite athletes they were into the skilled, dominant players they are now.
 
For Cross, the last hurrah is here; good chance it ends up on her side of the net.