Tucson, ARIZ. - The No. 15 Arizona Beach Volleyball team will host the Cactus Classic this weekend to open the 2020 season. The Cats season debut will be against Missouri State on Friday, Feb 21 at 12 p.m. (MST) with a face off later in the afternoon against San Francisco (4 p.m. MST). Arizona's tournament play will continue on Saturday Feb. 22 at 11:15 a.m. (MST) against Boise State and 1:45 p.m. (MST) against Missouri State. Arizona heads into the tournament having never met San Francisco or Missouri State on the court and having a 5-0 record against Boise State. All home matches are free and both Saturday matches will be televised on PAC-12 Arizona. 

With rain in the forecast for Saturday morning, please note that the only element that can delay or postpone play would be lightening in the area (or extreme cold).

Head Coach Steve Walker
On heading into opening weekend...

"I had the same feeling coming out as I did going into our intra-squad scrimmage, which was we have several parts of our collective game we can sure up. The other thing that was also known, going into last weeks' scrimmage, was that we have a team that can and will be able to compete at a very high level if we keep working and improving.

"Our teams' daily focus has been really good this spring term and a good number of players have not only stepped up their play, but their efforts in bettering practice as a whole.

"Headed into opening weekend my hope is we can show we've improved in those areas of our game we identified as issues from this past week, and really enjoy all the things that go into playing for a great University and athletics program."

SandCats Standouts
The Arizona Wildcats take on a whopping nine newcomers, with six Freshmen, and three being transfers. One of those transfers, senior blocker Carly Lowry, comes to Arizona from USF, one of Arizona's weekend opponents, where she played three seasons of beach. Transfer Halie Hess comes to Arizona with an incredible track record including being named All First-Team All-Conference twice at Mira Costa C.C. and ranked No. 4 in the state of California as a pair. 

They will join the nine returning SandCats including seniors, Olivia Hallaran and Natalie Anselmo.

Anselmo returns for her fourth and final season with the Wildcats with an overall record of 53-17. She spent most of her 2019 season in the #3 spot, where she paired up with Madison Rigdon to be the only pair nationally to go undefeated (17-0) in its flights. She currently ranks sixth in UA history in wins and eighth in UA history in winning percentage (.757). She was awarded AVCA Top Flight (Flight 3) (2018, 2019) and the Pac-12 All-Academic Second Team in 2019.

Hallaran earned second team all-Pac-12 honors as a Junior after registering 10 wins while playing in the No. 1 pairs spot alongside Mia Mason. She enters the 2020 season ranked 10th in wins in UA history.

Other Returning Wildcats include, Makenna Martin, Jasmine Safar, Jonny Baham, Dana Parker, Sarah Blacker, Caroline Cordes and Brooke Burling.



Cactus Classic

Friday Feb. 21 

Boise State vs University of San Francisco (10:00 a.m.)

No. 15 Arizona vs Missouri State (12:00 p.m.)

Missouri State vs Boise State (2:00 p.m.)

No. 15 Arizona vs University of San Francisco (4:00 p.m.)


Saturday Feb. 22

Missouri State vs University of San Francisco (10:00 am) **No Television**

No. 15 Arizona vs Boise State (11:15 a.m.; Pac-12 Network Arizona)

University of San Francisco vs No. 20 ASU (12:30 p.m.; Pac-12 Network Arizona)

No. 15 Arizona vs Missouri State (1:45 p.m.; Pac-12 Network Arizona)

No. 20 ASU vs Boise State (3:00 p.m.; Pac-12 Network Arizona)