It was a long afternoon at McKale Center as the No. 24 Colorado Buffaloes were in town to take on the Wildcats. The match went the five set difference as Colorado was able to come out with the win, 3-2. 

Arizona was led by Elizabeth Sheldon who came out strong and took the first set, 28-26. They continued to play strong as they led 18-15 in the second set, but after a timeout by the Buffs, they came out and scored seven straight points and didn’t look back. Going into the intermission the match was tied at one apiece.

The third set was dominated completely by Colorado. They went up early and at one point were up 20-9. After a little spurt at the end of the set, the Buffs took it 25-14. The Cats needed to win in set four to have a chance in a decisive last game. It was close throughout, but eventually The ‘Cats did come out with the win in set four. 

Despite three Wildcats hitting double-digit kills, and Kendra Dahlke getting her fifth double-double of the season with 13 digs, it wouldn’t be enough as the Cats dropped the last set 15-10. 

“We’re not there yet, we’re not quite ready to grow up yet,” Arizona head coach Dave Rubio said. 

Rubio also gave his input about the new rule this year, allowing a team to challenge up to three times during a match, “I’m not happy with our camera angles we have now, in theory it’s good to have replay…the camera angles aren’t conclusive enough.” Each team ran out of their challenges in the last set and none of the challenges were actually overturned. Unfortunately there are only two cameras that the referee can look at for angles so it is hard to overturn a call.

Elizabeth Shelton finished with a career high 16 kills which also led the team. 

“It was a hard loss, coming so close in 5 sets… At the end of the day we have to practice to where those five points will not happen,” Shelton said. 

Arizona fell below the .500 mark for the first time this year and now have a record of 8-9 (2-6 Pac-12) while Colorado improved to 14-5 (4-4 Pac-12).

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