SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The Sand Cats swept Day 1 of the Utah Invitational with wins against UC Davis and the University of Oregon on Friday, March 28.
Match 1: Arizona vs. University of California, Davis (8:00 a.m. MST)
Arizona- 5
UC Davis- 0
The Cats kicked things off with a 5-0 sweep of the University of California, Davis.
Annie Kost and Elin Kaiser secured the first point of the dual on Court 4 with a 21-18, 21-16 victory over UC Davis' Julia Chapman and Lindsay Heller.
Arizona's Kylee Fitzsimmons and Brooke Blutreich swiftly followed with a win on Court 2. After a tight 24-21 victory in the first set, the Sand Cat pairing earned the second point against UC Davis with a 21-17 second set win.
Meghan O'Meara and Jamie Streit put the Cats up 3-0 with their decisive 22-20, 21-12 win on Court 5. In a tight match on Court 3, Ashlyn Zilliken and Madeline Walker proved their resilience, taking the fourth point for Arizona in three hard-fought sets (22-20, 19-21, 16-14).
Kate Phillips and Adriana Nieves Papaleo completed the Sand Cat sweep of UC Davis with a 22-20, 21-17 victory on Court 1.
Match 2: Arizona vs. Oregon (2:00 p.m. MST)
Arizona- 3
Oregon- 2
Later in the day, the Sand Cats secured another win with a 3-2 victory over the Oregon Ducks.
Fitzsimmons and Blutreich opened the match with a win for Arizona, defeating Oregon's Landree Coats and Gwen Fife 21-18, 21-12 on Court 2.
The fours pairing of Kost and Kaiser saw their second win of the day against Oregon, putting the Cats up 2-0 in the dual with a 22-20, 21-9 victory.
Zilliken and Walker snagged the dual-determining point with a 21-9, 21-13 win on Court 3 against Oregon's Alex Kriz and Sophia Taylor.
Nieves Papaleo and Phillips fell just short against Oregon's 1's pair (21-19, 21-18), as did O'Meara and Streit on Court 5 (21-11, 21-11).
This was Arizona's second time facing Oregon this season. In their first meeting, the Cats emerged victorious 4-1.
Up Next:
The Sand Cats will play Utah, the host of the invitational, on Saturday, March 29 at 10 a.m. MST.
