In what was the penultimate week of contests of the fall season, Arizona athletics made the most of its opportunities with women's basketball dominating in both of its games and volleyball splitting against Cal and Stanford. This week's campus roundup gives a more detailed look of how the week went down.
Volleyball
In what was the final true road trip of the season, Arizona played tough matches against the Bay Area schools but ultimately could only come away with one win with a five-set victory over Cal.
Led by the strong play from Sofia Maldonado Diaz, the Wildcats (15-14, 5-13 Pac-12) were able to overcome being down two sets to one before ultimately coming back and winning the match. Zyonna Fellows and Emery Herman were other notables for the Wildcats.
Riding momentum going into its second game of the week, the Wildcats unfortunately could not carry over the magic to the Stanford match, getting swept in three sets and only getting over 20 points in one set.
Unable to contain the strong play of Stanford's Kendall Kipp, the Wildcats never found their footing and were forced to play from behind for the entire match where their comeback bid came up short.
Player of the week for the Wildcats goes to Diaz.
Women's basketball
In another week of basketball, the Wildcats (4-0) had themselves another clean week, getting wins against both Loyola Marymount and Long Beach State.
Going against an up and coming LMU squad, the Wildcats were led by the big three of Shaina Pellington (19 points, 3 assists) Cate Reese (15 points, 3 rebounds) and Esmery Martinez (14 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists) and outscored LMU by 20 points going into halftime and shooting 55% from the field with 50% from three.
Despite a closer second half, the Wildcats were able to generate even tighter defense and hold LMU to 40% shooting and run away with the game, claiming the 87-51 victory.
Facing another Southern California team on Sunday, the Wildcats made their game against Long Beach State more of a ballgame, but nevertheless got the 86-64 victory with every starter scoring double-digit points. Despite the score, Arizona played in a dogfight with the score being within one going into halftime.
"I'm kind of glad we had this test," head coach Adia Barnes said. "We were losing by a lot. I think we were losing by 15 at some point right? It felt like 25 but then we found a way to rally and found a way to win so that was a positive thing but we have to get better at some basic things that we are not where we need to be at all right now."
Having gotten off to a red hot start to the season thus far, West Virginia transfer Martinez continued her strong play leading all players in scoring with 19 points and coming one rebound shy of getting a double-double.
Transfer Jade Loville also had a dominant game with 18 points while returning starters Pellington (15 points, 6 rebounds) and Reese (14 points, 9 rebounds) appear to have found their groove.
"I didn't know," Martinez said with a chuckle about being close to a double-double. "My teammate told me like Shaina took your rebound."
The Wildcats will take a few days to rest and recover before they head to San Diego to play in the USD Thanksgiving Classic where they will be greeted with a game against Cal Baptist on Friday with tip being at 5 p.m. (MST).
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