Wildcat Wrap: Arizona volleyball’s season ends, basketball picks up big road wins

Let’s recap the week that was in Arizona Athletics

From both Arizona Wildcats basketball teams picking up road wins to volleyball’s season coming to a close, let’s recap all that went down in Arizona Athletics last week.

Volleyball

• Arizona’s season came to an end Friday with a 3-0 loss to Missouri in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. This year’s appearance in the tournament marked the fifth time in six seasons UA reached the postseason.
• Senior Kendra Dahlke ended her UA career seventh in kills in program history with 1,408. She had 10 kills and an ace against the Tigers.
• UA finished fifth in the Pac-12 and won 22 matches this season. The Wildcats only won 11 games in 2017 and return nearly every key contributor in 2019, so the future is bright.
• Dahlke, Devyn Cross and Julia Patterson all received All-Pac-12 honors.

Women’s Tennis

• Senior Emma Wilson is ranked as the No. 86 player in the country by ITA rankings. She has multiple wins against top-100 ranked players this season.
• Wilson and the team are back on the court Jan. 11 in the Tennis Classic in Palm Springs, California.

Hockey

• UA beat Arizona State 3-0 on Friday night in Tucson, and completed the sweep of ASU on Saturday night with a 4-0 win.
• With the wins, the ‘Cats are tied for first in Western Collegiate Hockey league with Central Oklahoma.
• The ‘Cats won’t take the ice again until the beginning of next year when they host Grand Canyon University from Jan. 4-5.

Women’s Basketball

• Junior Lucia Alonso had only scored three points in four games in the first five games for Arizona (6-1), but that changed on Tuesday night against Incarnate Word. Her 14-point night help get the 84-42 win at the McKale Center. Alonso had four assists and a steal, too. Freshman Cate Reese—fresh off being named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week—posted another double-double, her third of her career. Reese finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Arguably the best basketball player on campus, redshirt sophomore Aari McDonald led the team with 24 points.
• However, some not so good news broke last week when it was announced that freshman Shalyse Smith is transferring. The former four-star recruit from Washington only accumulated 14 minutes in three games for UA. Smith’s decision came a week after sophomore Kiana Barkhoff announced she was transferring. Barkhoff’s move is to be closer to her home in Florida.
• But as players leave, Barnes has others joining. Derin Erdogan, a Turkish player, committed to Arizona on Wednesday. Erdogan, a point guard, is a part of the 2020 class. She is averaged 11.3 points, 6 rebounds and 3.7 assists with the 2018 FIBA U16 Turkish national team in the World Championship.
• Barnes broke down the 2019 class, which consists solely of foreign players.
• UA closed out the week with a 69-60 road win over San Diego State on Sunday. McDonald had 29 points in the win. Alonso had 15 points.
• UA hosts Montana on Wednesday, and then heads out to California for a Sunday game against Long Beach State.

Swimming and Diving

• Juniors Hannah Cox and Kirsten Jacobsen took first and second place in the 1,650 Free at the final day of the Texas Hall of Fame Invitational in Austin.
• Cox, who took first, finished at 15:57.80, which is the fourth-fastest time in school. Jacobsen clocked-in at 16:06.28.
• Sophomore Brooks Fail was runner-up in the 1,650 free on the men’s side with a time of 14:43.90, a personal best. His time placed him fifth-fastest in UA history.

Men’s Basketball

• One Hurley brother down, one to go. UA (6-2) flew all the way to the East Coast for a Sunday afternoon game against Dan Hurley and the University of Connecticut. Even though the ‘Cats didn’t make a field goal in the final 6:43 of the game, they were able to beat UConn, 76-72.
• Our recap can be found here, and here are some more takeaways.
• We have a breakdown of UA’s 2019 class.
• Nico Mannion hit a game-winning shot to lift Pinnacle High School over Shadow Mountain on Friday.
• UA hosts Utah Valley Thursday night before going on another true-road game on Sunday against Alabama.

Football

• Running backs coach and associate head coach Clarence McKinney will reportedly be the new head coach at Texas Southern. Arizona led the Pac-12 in rushing under his watch with 202.4 yards per game.
• Rocky Aitogi decommited from UA on Sunday and subsequently committed to New Mexico.
• On Saturday, three-star junior college defensive tackle Myles Tapusoa committed to UA. Originally from Utah, he has played the last two seasons at Eastern Arizona College.
• We took a look at which players are eligible to redshirt in 2018.

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