Arizona volleyball tries to halt losing streak as Big 12 play starts

Debates about scheduling can go on forever. Is it better to schedule weak teams who you know you can beat or schedule top 100 teams that you may struggle against? RPI suggests that beating up on weak teams may be the way to go.

There was a lot of criticism of Rita Stubbs’ scheduling last year when she put together an extremely easy nonconference slate. She addressed that this year, but it hasn’t played out the way she hoped.

Arizona was 11-0 after nonconference play last year. The first official RPI came out on Oct. 2, and the Wildcats were ranked No. 52 despite the lack of quality opponents on that schedule. The wins ultimately mattered more than who they were against.

The schedule was upgraded this year. The first official RPI won’t be out until next week, but the unofficial RPI has the Wildcats at No. 104 with a 2-4 record against the top 100. The Wildcats did not play any top 100 teams in nonconference last season. Their 6-4 record includes losses against No. 2 Nebraska, No. 55 UTEP, No. 80 San Diego, and No. 84 Washington.

That’s not to say that Arizona won’t climb high enough in the rankings to get that elusive NCAA Tournament berth. Tournament projections that include a variety of rankings, including predictive rankings like Pablo rankings, suggest the Wildcats will be on the bubble once again this year but end up on the right side of things. It’s definitely an uphill climb, though.

That climb starts on Friday when Big 12 play kicks off in the state of Kansas. The Wildcats are fortunate that their opponents in the Big 12 will give them plenty of opportunities for quality wins. Only Arizona and Texas Tech are ranked outside the top 100 in unofficial RPI heading into conference play. Only Texas Tech is outside the top 150.

Of course, that also means plenty of opportunities to lose. The Wildcats will have to find a way to motivate themselves after dropping at least two nonconference matches it had opportunities to win. No one expected a win at Nebraska, but the other three nonconference matches were all winnable. Even the three-set loss at Washington was a tight three-setter that Arizona could have pushed harder in.

Up Next for Arizona Volleyball

Arizona Wildcats (6-4) @ RV Kansas State Wildcats (7-1)

When: Friday, Sept. 26 at 4:30 p.m. MST

Where: Morgan Family Arena in Manhattan, Kan.

Streaming:ESPN+

Stats:Arizona Live Stats

Arizona Wildcats (6-4) @ No. 18 Kansas Jayhawks (9-5)

When: Sunday, Sept. 28 at 10 a.m. MST

Where: Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena in Lawrence, Kan.

TV/Streaming: ESPN and Watch ESPN

Stats:Arizona Live Stats

Stubbs said that she didn’t have to motivate the team to get up for Nebraska because of the opponent and environment. The problem becomes how they motivate themselves for opponents that aren’t Nebraska. If they want to play in the NCAA Tournament, they will have to find a way.

Against UTEP, the Wildcats regularly fell into big holes and tried to climb out late in sets. They were not ready when the opening whistle sounded, and it didn’t end with the first set. They fell behind significantly in all three sets they lost to the Miners.

“We have goals that we want to accomplish,” said sophomore outside hitter Carlie Cisneros. “We set them at the beginning of the season. UTEP was a very upsetting game, just because it wasn’t who we are. And we finally started to find ourselves again against Nebraska. And now we’re in the mode like we do what we need to do now in conference to get us to the tournament. We got to work twice as hard, compete as hard, and we just got to play together. We were struggling with that, but…we’re very cohesive now.”

For Stubbs, having that motivation against any opponent is part of growing up, but the coaches are trying to pull that out of the players.

“I think that’s very hard for people to do,” Stubbs said. “Like, what really motivates you? We go back and kind of maybe talk about their why—why you’re doing what you’re doing—and not allow the opponents or whomever is on the other side of the net to dictate your emotions. I mean, that’s a mature factor that I think all the players are learning, and the fact that we went out and stuck together as a team [against Nebraska] and worked hard, and some good things came from it, it gives them something to kind of think back on, which is really a good sign of us moving in the right direction.”

Cisneros is getting some of her motivation from playing near home this week. The native of Kansas City, MO is excited to be playing Kansas State and Kansas in their arenas.

“KU is like, probably, 45 minutes from my house, so I’m gonna have a lot of family there watching me,” she said. “So I’m just really excited to play. Preparing for it right now. We’re honestly not too upset about the Nebraska loss, because we played well. But now we’re going to take what we learned from that game and bring it with us into conference, and I’m really excited to see what we do with it.”

It’s likely to be motivating for the Jayhawks, as well. Arizona’s winning run last season started with a victory over KU in McKale Center. Kansas was ranked No. 8 at the time, giving Arizona its second top 20 win of the season.

“Especially since they’re home,” Cisneros said. “It’s not a very large gym, but it is a loud gym, and I remember going there when I was younger and watching them play. So I think there’s definitely gonna be motivation to beat us. And I know a couple girls on that team, they’re really excited to play against us, so we just have to come firing on all cylinders.”

As for K-State, Arizona was not happy with its showing against the other Wildcats last season. Their effort against KSU led to a players meeting that helped them get on the same page. It was the last loss they suffered until they fell to Washington this year.

It’s hard to judge either team based on who they’ve played so far. There have been some big wins and some struggles.

Kansas State has had a very successful pre-conference run as far as the W/L record. These Wildcats have only dropped one match so far and have a win over AVCA No. 25 North Carolina.

Most of their schedule is like Arizona’s was last season. Six of their eight matches have come against teams outside the top 100 of the unofficial RPI and three of those were outside the top 150. That one win over a top 20 RPI is doing a lot of good for their resume right now.

Kansas has challenged itself much more than K-State has. Former Oregon head coach Matt Ulmer took over in the offseason, so they are adapting to some changes. They are still challenging themselves with a strong schedule, but the results haven’t been what they might have liked.

KU sits at 9-5 and No. 51 in the unofficial RPI. Eleven of their 14 matches have come against teams in the top 100 of RPI with six of those against top 50 teams. They are 6-5 in those matches and 1-3 against top 25 teams. The fact that they challenged themselves has kept them in the AVCA rankings despite the five losses.

Arizona can show the country what it’s capable of against two teams that have a certain amount of laurels. While the K-State match will be on ESPN+, the Kansas match will be on ESPN. It will be followed by a match against No. 23 Utah on FS1 when they return to McKale Center next week. Can that be used as motivation?

“I mean, I’m sure they know all of those things,” Stubbs said. “I don’t sit back and talk about, well, this match is on television or whatnot. One of the things about athletes nowadays, they know everything before you could ever tell them in terms of the opponents, and where they’re going and what takes place there, and things of that nature. So that part’s nice. And going into Big 12 play, there’s a lot of great volleyball going on. We have several teams in our conference that are doing well, and so they know that, and this just adds more excitement to it for them.”