Wilson, Hodge lead Wildcats to a 4-set victory over Houston, snapping 3 game losing streak

Head coach and the Arizona Wildcats were looking to get back on track after a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Colorado on Wednesday. Today, the Houston Cougars came to town and were no match for the hard-hitting Wildcats. In the first set, Houston was able to keep in touch with Arizona due to errors, both in serving and serve receive.

However, the Wildcats were efficient on offense, hitting 47 percent and having zero attack errors. led Arizona in the first set with six kills. Houston was led by with four kills.



A 5-0 scoring run for Arizona was the driving factor for the 25-20 opening set win. “It was so much fun playing with her,” outside hitter said about Hodge’s performance. Houston started the second set strong, jumping out to a 4-1 lead, but the Wildcats remained unphased.

After a 3-0 run by Arizona to tie it up, the set went back and forth between the two squads. Adding two more kills and a block, Hodge helped the Wildcats in set two. Wilson also had eight kills at the point in the game.

However, the Cougars made enough plays to steal set two 25-22 Arizona also had eight hitting errors in set two, after zero in the first set. “We had too many errors in the second set,” Stubbs said on the second set struggles. “We did a good job, however, of not missing any serves in the second set.

” The Wildcats started set three strong with a 6-0 scoring run to lead 8-3. Another 4-0 run helped the Wildcats to pull away early. Wilson dominated set three, as she added seven more kills and an ace.

Grieve stayed consistent in the third adding five more kills to her total. Arizona won set three 25-17, as runs were the theme for the Wildcats. “I was really just going for it,” Wilson said on her third set performance.

The fourth set was controlled by Arizona, as the play of Wilson and Hodge was too much for the Cougars. A mix of errors by Houston and clean play for Arizona helped the Wildcats take home a 25-16 set four win. A 3-1 set victory, helped snap a three-game losing streak for Arizona.

Overall, Wilson finished with 18 kills, 16 digs, and two blocks. Hodge also had 18 kills with 16 digs and two blocks. finished with nine kills and 15 digs.

had seven kills and six blocks. “It’s just wonderful having a team that is coachable throughout and who believed in one another, which is really important,” Stubbs said. Arizona now awaits their rivalry matchup with Arizona State next Thursday in Tucson at 6:00 PM.

The Sun Devils had 4,630 fans when the Wildcats visited Desert Financial Arena last week, marking the fourth-largest crowd in program history. Stubbs wants to up that on ASU’s return visit. “I need 4,700 people, at least, here on Thursday against ASU,” Stubbs said, looking at the ASU game coming up.

“They’re competitive. They’re going to come in, they’re ready to play, they’re a veteran team.”.