TUCSON, Ariz. – The No. 15 Arizona beach volleyball team will host the Arizona Innovational this weekend at Bear Down Beach. Tournament play will start on Friday when the Cats take on the University of Louisiana at Monroe at 12:30 p.m., then Arizona State at 4:30 p.m. MST Arizona will take the sand again on Saturday to face the University of North Florida at 11:00 a.m. and New Mexico at 1:00 p.m.
All matches are free to attend, and fans are encouraged to come out and support. You can also follow the games live stats at ArizonaLiveStats.com.
Serving Up the Facts
The results are in! The Cats come in at No. 15 in this week's DiG poll. Arizona is currently 6-2 this season, after their winning stunt at the IVC Tri-Match in Irvine. They came out on top with 5-0 wins against both Irvine Valley and Vanguard for their first away tournament of the season.
"I do like how this group has progressed throughout the early part of the regular season", said head coach
Steve Walker. "We have shown the ability to adapt and at times show some high-level play in the midst of competition, but much like the rest of the teams across the country, we have yet to really play our best volleyball. I think the players would agree with that assessment. We have pieced together some very good practices this week and we are definitely moving our game in the right direction."
SandCat Standouts
The pair of
Olivia Hallaran and
Madison Rigdon were among the Cats that went undefeated this past Irvine trip. Hallaran is on her third year with the Cats, totaling a 29-24 career record before the start of this season. Rigdon, the graduate transfer from Kansas, currently holds a 4-4 record coming into this weekends tournament
Setting Up the Weekend
The Cats will face two familiar teams this weekend, as they take on Arizona State and New Mexico. The last Wildcat and Sun Devil face off resulted in a 3-2 win for the Cats at the Pepperdine Tri-Match. Arizona came out on top 5-0 against the Lobos the last time the two teams met at the Bear Down Bash. This weekend will mark the first time the Cats meet both the University of Louisiana at Monroe and the University of North Florida.
The full schedule of the Arizona Invitational is shown below:
Arizona Invitational
Friday March 15th
New Mexico vs. ULM (10:00 a.m.)
UNF vs. ASU (11:15 a.m.)
No. 15 Arizona vs. ULM (12:30 p.m.) *
New Mexico vs. UNF (2:30 p.m.) *
No. 15 Arizona vs. Arizona State (4:30 p.m.) *
Saturday March 16th
ULM vs. UNF (9:00 a.m.)
New Mexico vs. ASU (10:00 a.m.)
No. 15 Arizona vs. UNF (11:00 a.m.)
ASU vs. ULM (12:00 p.m.)
No. 15 Arizona vs. New Mexico (1:00 p.m.)
* - Matches will be played in two flights on three courts at a time.
Follow the Cats!
For continued coverage of Arizona Wildcat Beach Volleyball, visit ArizonaWildcats.com. Fans can keep up with the latest in Arizona Athletics by following us on Twitter (@UAbeachvb), Instagram (@arizonabeachvolleyball), Facebook (ArizonaBeachVolleyball), and Snapchat (Arizonabeachvb).
