Right side comes up big for Arizona volleyball in victory over Tarleton State

Women's volleyball relies heavily on the left side for its scoring, but Arizona needed some time for its outsides to get going on Saturday afternoon. The middles and right sides stepped up to lead the Wildcats to a 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-22) victory over Tarleton State in the Wildcat Classic.

After one set, Destiny Ndam-Simpson and Carlie Cisneros had one kill apiece. Both were hitting .000. Opposite Kennedy Osunsanmi and middle blocker Marina Vosloo teamed up with the Wildcat servers to control the set anyway.

"That's part of our game plan is to be able to spread the offense a little bit," said Arizona head coach Rita Stubbs . "You know, it was hard for Carlie to score in the beginning, but she turned it on. Same thing that happened yesterday."

Both left sides eventually found their way, but it took a while and their efficiency took a hit. Ndam-Simpson ended with seven kills, two aces, nine digs, and two total blocks. She hit .217. Cisneros had six kills, five digs, and one solo block. She hit .111.

Osunsanmi never let down. Fellow opposite Renee Jones also pitched in to help Arizona pull out the win over a the Texans. The middles did their part throughout the match, as well.

"I'm just making sure I'm ready for every ball…and that (Maria Olga Siapani) knows I'm available," Osunsanmi said.

Osunsanmi tied Ndam-Simpson for the team lead with seven kills. She added three digs and four total blocks (one solo). Her 9.5 points also tied Ndam-Simpson for the team lead.

Jones have five kills on .333 hitting and one total block.

Arizona's starting middles made a statement. Journey Tucker had four kills and five total blocks. Two of her blocks were solo. Her 7.5 points were just behind Osunsanmi and Ndam-Simpson.

Freshman middle Marina Vosloo followed up her strong debut with another good outing, although she didn't play the whole match as Stubbs worked to get time for her bench. Vosloo had three kills on five swings without an error. She added an ace for four points. She left the match in the second set and did not return.

Getting the other players time on the court paid off in a big way for reserve middle blocker Kristen Dear . Dear had four kills on .800 hitting. The hitting percentage led all players who had more than one attempt. Despite playing just one set, she tied for second on the team with four total blocks. Two of those were solo, which tied Tucker for the team high in solo blocks.

"It was really nice seeing Kristen go out there and make a difference as a blocker as well as an attacker," Stubbs said. "All the middles are different. So one of the things is if you don't know which middle's out there, you don't really know who to prepare for or how to prepare."

Getting scoring from all parts of the court is what the Wildcats are working towards. Despite meeting that goal and closing it out in straight sets, the match wasn't easy for Arizona.

Tarleton State has had a strong weekend. They pushed UCSB to five sets on Friday. They had leads late in two of the three sets against Arizona. The Texans' final leads were 22-21 in the second and 18-16 in the third.

"I think they're doing a phenomenal job," Stubbs said. "And I told (head coach Jazmyne Johnson), I said, let's make sure we talk after this because your team is doing all the right stuff."

The second set was especially difficult for the Wildcats as the Texans kept them from getting into their offense smoothly. Aside from two overpasses, Arizona was generally able to recover on its way to salvaging the set.

"I thought they did a phenomenal job of having an idea of who to serve, and they kept pace on the ball," Stubbs said. "And when you do that, then we just got to be ready to respond. But I love the fact that we stayed together. At no point did we act like we were panicked. I don't know what was going on on the inside, but at no point did we like lose our mind or freak out that we couldn't do what was necessary."

The Wildcats also kept pressure on Tarleton State with the serve. Arizona had seven aces with six of those coming in the opening set. Ndam-Simpson, Siapani, and Brenna Ginder all ended with two each.

Stubbs is hoping to get the Wildcats in the top four of the Big 12 for attendance this season a year after finishing sixth. Arizona only has three nonconference matches at home this year, but it's off to a good start for attendance. The team drew 1,812 on Friday night and followed it with 2,026 on Saturday for a total of 3,838 over two days. Last year, UA drew a total of 2,999 in its first two matches.