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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

Beach volleyball suffers two straight losses in day one of conference tournament

Sophomore+Brooke+Burling+%2831%29+during+the+Wildcats+fall+scrimmage+against+the+Grand+Canyon+Antelopes+on+October+14%2C+2017+at+Bear+Down+Beach+in+Tucson%2C+AZ.
Stan Liu/Arizona Athletics
Sophomore Brooke Burling (31) during the Wildcats fall scrimmage against the Grand Canyon Antelopes on October 14, 2017 at Bear Down Beach in Tucson, AZ.

Arizona beach volleyball took to the courts again today against No. 2 UCLA and No. 14 Stanford in Santa Monica, California, and lost to both schools.

After losing to both No. 2 UCLA and No. 14 Stanford today, No. 11 Arizona drops to 9-5 on the season.

UCLA

To commence their doubleheader, they were swept by a score of 5-0 against the No. 2 Bruins. 

The only pair to prolong their match to three sets was Arizona’s top-ranked pair, Olivia Macdonald and Natalie Anselmo. The pair played against Bruin sisters Megan and Nicole McNamara, who were recently named the Pac-12 Pair of the Week after going 3-0 in the LMU Invitational last weekend.

The top-ranked SandCat pair was able to play three sets in their first match but was unable to hold on long enough to win against the stellar Bruin pair. Their loss today brought Macdonald and Anselmo their second loss as a pair this season.

Mia Mason and Makenna Martin were able to put up a tough fight against Bruins Zana Muno and Savvy Simo but dropped their match in two sets by a score of 19-21 and 13-21, respectively.

The Wildcats also saw losses from the freshman-sophomore combo of Jonny Baham/Brooke Burling and the sophomore-senior combo of Olivia Hallaran/Kacey Nady. Baham and Burling dropped their first set by a score of 10-21 and 11-21 in the second set. Hallaran and Nady dropped their first set by a score of 13-21 and their second set by a score of 10-21.

Stanford

The latter half of the doubleheader was a similar story for the Wildcats. They were unable to defeat the Stanford Cardinals, dropping the game by a score of 2-3.

The No. 4 and No. 5 ranked teams were able to get wins for Arizona, but that was not enough for the ‘Cats to secure the win against the Cardinals. 

The senior duo and Arizona’s No. 4 team Hailey Devlin and Stephany Purdue, dropped their first set against Stanford’s Payton Chang and Catherine Raquel by a score of 17-21. However, they were able to bounce back and win the second and third sets (21-15 and 15-11). 

The No. 5 team, Baham and Burling, defeated Stanford’s Kat Anderson and Caitlin Keefe in a two-set sweep (21-10 and 21-14).

Arizona’s top three ranked teams all lost, so the ‘Cats were not able to pull out the best three-out-five win in their second game of the day. Stanford’s Kathryn Plummer and Sunny Villapando defeated Arizona’s No. 1 pair Macdonald and Anselmo in a two-set sweep (21-18 and 22-20).

Arizona looks to go 2-2 on the tournament as they are back in action tomorrow at 9 a.m. PST against the USC Trojans and again at 1 p.m. PST against the Cal Bears to end their California road trip.


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