TUCSON, Ariz. – Arizona volleyball fell in its Pac-12 home opener, falling in four sets (25-20, 25-22, 21-25, 25-13) to No. 20 Utah on Friday evening at McKale Center.
 
Devyn Cross, who entered the match as the nation's leader in hitting percentage, posted her second straight 15-kill outing, again tying her career mark for kills, and did so on .414 hitting.
 
Elizabeth Shelton also collected 15 kills, tying Cross for the match lead. Shelton hit .333 on her 30 swings.
 
Julia Patterson finished with her third consecutive double-double and 15th in her last 16 Pac-12 matches, dating back to last season. The senior finished with 40 assists and 13 digs to go along with six kills and two blocks.
 
Arizona's offense struggled against the conference's best blocking team; Utah out-blocked Arizona 13.0-8.0 in the match and held Arizona, which entered the week with the Pac-12's second-best hitting percentage (.272) to just a .191 mark for the match.
 
"We struggled on the pins today," said head coach Dave Rubio. "Our outside hitters didn't do enough to give us a chance to win the match."
 
With the loss to the Utes (10-4, 2-1 Pac-12), Arizona (10-5, 0-3 Pac-12) falls to 0-3 this season against ranked opponents.
 
Arizona will look to bounce back against Colorado on Sunday at noon in McKale Center.
 
BY SET
 
Set 1 (Utah 25, Arizona 20): Utah broke away late, erasing an Arizona lead that it held until the Utes scored three straight to take a 17-16 lead and breaking away from there. Utah ended the first set scoring eight of the final 11 points. The Utes posted 18 kills on .324 hitting in the frame.
 
Set 2 (Utah 25, Arizona 22): The Utes held Arizona to a .161 hitting percentage in the second set and used three aces to win the second set, 25-22.
 
Set 3 (Arizona 25, Utah 21): The Wildcats hit .293, led by a six-kill, no-error effort from Elizabeth Shelton, in the third set to force a fourth set.
 
Set 4 (Utah 25, Arizona 13): Arizona ran out of gas in the fourth set as Utah won 25-13 to win the match.
 
UP NEXT
 
The Cats host Colorado on Sunday at noon MST.
 
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