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

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.