Wildcat Wrap: Arizona soccer advances in NCAA Tournament, basketball officially begins

Let’s recap the week that was in Arizona Athletics

Soccer won in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, while both basketball teams picked up wins to officially start the season.

Let’s recap the week that was for the Arizona Wildcats.

Soccer

• Arizona advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament by beating Denver 3-0 at home on Friday. Our full recap can be found here. It was a shaky first half, followed by an explosive second half.
• The Wildcats will now head to Knoxville, Tennessee to take on No. 2 seed Tennessee on their home field. We are trying to make the trip out east to cover that game, and you can help make it possible with a small donation.
• If Arizona beats the Lady Vols, it would be the program’s third ever Sweet Sixteen appearance.
• Check out our soccer section for more coverage.

Volleyball

• Kendra Dahlke returned Friday, but Arizona couldn’t pullout a win in a 5-set match at Utah. Dahlke had missed the last two weeks with a foot injury and led the match with 29 kills and 33 points. The ‘Cats won the first two sets, but the Utes rallied back to win the next three.
• However, UA salvaged a split on the Rocky Mountain trip with a comeback win over Colorado on Sunday. Down 2-0, the ‘Cats rallied to win the next three sets to leave Boulder with the win. Sophomore Candice Denny had 16 kills.
• Arizona (19-9, 8-8 Pac-12) is slowly getting healthy after fighting the injury bug for most of the season. Along with Dahlke, junior Makenna Martin was back on the court. Martin suffered a groin injury last week.
• The ‘Cats were still without junior Devyn Cross and redshirt sophomore Liz Shelton, however.
• UA, on the NCAA Tournament bubble, has its next three games at home. USC comes to town on Friday, followed by UCLA on Sunday. Then Cal is in Tucson on Nov. 21.

Women’s Basketball

• Arizona started off the season on the right note with a 71-46 win over Idaho State on Friday.
• Although foul trouble and poor shooting may overshadow the win, the play of freshman Cate Reese is poised to shine during the season. In her first college game, Reese had a double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Point guard Aari McDonald also had a double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds, her first official game since transferring from Washington.
• The ‘Cats face Loyola Marymount on Tuesday before heading to Hawaii for the Bank of Hawaii Classic over the weekend. There, UA will face Seattle on Friday and Portland on Sunday.

Softball

• Florida State, the 2018 national champions, are coming to Tucson from March 8-10, we have learned. FSU has made 31 NCAA Tournament appearances and has reached the Women’s College World Series three times since 2014.
• UA has a 16-1 all-time record against FSU, losing for the first time in 2017, 1-0.
• The ‘Cats also host Alabama on Feb. 16.
• Ex-ASU ace G Juarez is transferring to Oklahoma.

Hockey

• The ‘Cats on ice got three wins during the week. UA swept Maryville and then won in overtime against Grand Canyon University on Sunday, 3-2.
• UA hosts Arkansas on Thursday.

Cross-Country

• Two Wildcats — senior Addi Zerrenner and redshirt junior Carlos Villarreal will be running in the 2018 NCAA Cross-Country Championships on Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin. It’ll be the first time Zerrenner has run in the event, and the second time Villarreal has been in the championships, but his first time competing for cross-country.

Baseball

• The ‘Cats scored two in the bottom of the 24th inning to beat BYU in an exhibition on Saturday. You can check out Athletics’ recap here.
• Meaningful baseball begins in February for UA.

Women’s Tennis

• Seniors Sophia Thomas and Taylor Tamblyn were the lone bright spot at the UNLV invitational on Saturday as the duo won their doubles match. UA lost four matches at the event.

Women’s Golf

• Arizona won the Pac-12 Preview in Hawaii. The Wildcats came back from three shots down to capture the title on Wednesday.
• Sophomore Yu-Sang Hou clinched a share of the individual title at 6-under.
• The team gets some well-deserved rest as they’ll put down the clubs until 2019 when their season begins.

Men’s Basketball

• Arizona blew out Houston Baptist and Cal Poly to begin the regular season. Check out our basketball section for extensive coverage.
• UA (2-0) hosts UTEP on Wednesday in its last tuneup before the vaunted Maui Invitational

Football

• Coming off the bye week, Arizona is unsurprisingly a heavy underdog against the No. 8 Washington State Cougars.
• Three Arizona freshmen were arrested in late October, we learned this weekend.
• The Territorial Cup is a day game this year!
• As always, check out our football section for more coverage.

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