Exhibitions are to work the kinks out and get ready for the season. They’re also meant to show which weaknesses need to be addressed. Arizona volleyball certainly knows it has things to work on after New Mexico defeated the Wildcats 3-1 (27-25, 15-25, 25-16, 25-20) in Albuquerque on Saturday afternoon.
The Wildcats continued running their new 6-2 offense, but they struggled to score when starting setter Maria Olga Siapani was off the floor. The Wildcats had 45 assists. Siapani was responsible for 35. Libero Brenna Ginder had five and second setter Harmony Sample had the other five.
Arizona was extremely inefficient on the attack. As a team, they hit .137 for the match. Only freshman middle blocker Marina Vosloo hit better than .227.
Vosloo started the match after having a strong showing in the first exhibition. She had five kills on .364 hitting. She added two total blocks (one solo) for 7.5 points.
Destiny Ndam-Simpson was the only Wildcat with double-digit kills. The outside hitter had 18 kills on .227 hitting. She added two aces and three total blocks for 21.5 points. Her 16 digs gave her a double-double.
Both Ndam-Simpson and Vosloo turned over 40 percent of their swings into kills with kill percentages of .409 and .455, respectively. No one else on the team even approached a .200 hitting percentage, and Britt Carlson was the only other Wildcat to turn at least one-third of her attempts into kills.
The story of the day was errors, both hitting and service. While Arizona had eight aces, the servers gave those points away with 12 service errors. As in the first exhibition, some of those service errors came at critical junctures.
With the match tied at a set apiece and UNM leading set three 22-16, the Wildcats had service error by Brookelyn Hatton, an attacking error by Carlie Cisneros, and a reception error by Hatton to fall behind the Lobos 2-1.
In the fourth, Arizona was closing in on New Mexico at 16-14. Two straight attacking errors by Carlson put the Wildcats back in a four-point hole in a set they had to win.
The Wildcats responded again, cutting the Lobos’ lead to 19-17. Two errors by Ndam-Simpson followed shortly thereafter, making it 21-18. Ndam-Simpson had two more errors down the stretch—one on serve and one on the attack—to take New Mexico to match point.
The Wildcats won the blocking game 9-4 behind seven total blocks by Journey Tucker. They had three more aces and five more digs than UNM. The Lobos only had one more kill than UA and hit just .179 as a team, but the five extra hitting errors, three extra service errors, and two additional blocking errors by Arizona put the home team in the driver’s seat.
The Wildcats have less than a week to fix what needs to be fixed and get on the same page. They start the regular season in McKale Center against Prairie View A&M on Friday, Aug. 28 at 6 p.m. MST.
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