Jordan Wilson (5) — TUCSON, ARIZ. — Volleyball vs. Colorado at McKale Center. Oct. 8, 2025. Photo by Marison Bilagody / Arizona Athletics
Arizona volleyball did to Houston what Colorado did to the Wildcats last week. When the Cougars thought they had a comfortable lead, Arizona came back. When the Wildcats had opportunities to run away with a set, they did it. The result was a 3-1 (25-18, 20-25, 26-24, 25-19) Arizona victory at the Fertitta Center in Houston, Tex. on Sunday morning.
“A win!” said Arizona head coach Rita Stubbs. “I’ll take it!”
Dominant performances by Arizona’s three pin hitters led the way, but Arizona was most effective when the middle blockers got going, too. Two of the three middles did just that.
Outside hitters Jordan Wilson and Carlie Cisneros had double-doubles for the second straight match. For Wilson, it was her third in the last four matches. Cisneros has had three in the last five matches. It was the fifth straight match that both of Arizona’s outsides have had double-digit kills.
Wilson led the way with a match-high 19 kills. She did it on .294 hitting. She set a career high with 24 digs. That number also led the match. She added two service aces for 21 points and had two assists.
Even the best aren’t perfect, though. For Wilson, it was the serve and pass game that sometimes gave her trouble. Of course, Houston made her do a lot of work there.
Wilson was responsible for almost half of Houston’s nine aces with four reception errors. Houston targeted her 20 times. That was more than any Wildcat except defensive specialist Haven Wray, who had 21 opportunities and three reception errors.
Wilson responded by putting pressure on Houston’s serve receive game. She had just three service errors to go with her two aces. That is fairly close to the 50-50 ratio that coaches look for, which is something they have been working on. It pleased Stubbs to see some of the things they talk about implemented.
“You want her to be aggressive, because you’re not going to beat teams if we’re not serving aggressive, but at the end of the day, sometimes we just need to get the ball in the court,” Stubbs said. “And so helping her to understand that and fine tune it a little bit more was something that was very beneficial to us.”
Wilson still had some great backrow play, which is the part of her game that has improved the most this season. The 24 digs are a good indication of that, but one particular dig was evidence of how much she has improved and how critical that improvement is.
Arizona was trailing 24-22 in the third set with the match tied at a set apiece. The Wildcats had already erased two set points and forced a timeout from Houston. On the third set point, Wilson made a difficult dig then immediately popped up for the backrow attack. Her kill wiped away the third set point and forced another timeout.
It may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was the third point of a 6-0 Arizona run to close out the third set and go up 2-1.
“For Jordan, it is just a matter of calling out what she sees, so she stays calm and controlled,” Stubbs said. “Because one of the things about Jordan—you love and you want her to be this way—is the fact that she’s just always aggressive. You know, she’s never afraid of a moment. But there’s times where you just need to be able to modify. And she did that on one of the later back row attacks. Normally she goes up there and she tries to tee off and hit it as hard as she could, but she went up there and saw the scene and was able to get the ball and finesse the ball to the area, and sometimes that’s enough.”
Cisneros was also key to that run. The sophomore outside had two kills during that run, including the one that tied that set at 24.
Those were two of her 15 kills. She also had a service ace to give her 16 points. She added 20 digs.
The outsides weren’t the only ones producing on the pins, though. Texas native Ana Heath was a force on the right side. Heath had 11 kills on .308 hitting. She tied MB Journey Tucker with a team-high five total blocks for 14 points. She also had five digs.
“I thought [Heath’s] blocking is what made her stand out more, because she put herself in the right spots and just listened to the things we’ve been working on all week in practice,” Stubbs said.
Heath was able to perform in front of friends and family who made the trip to Houston.
The pins couldn’t do it all, though. Arizona struggled getting the middles involved at times. When they were on, they helped keep the Cougars guessing.
Tucker had three kills on a team-high .400 hitting. Her five total blocks included a solo block, giving her 5.5 points. Sydnie Vanek had four kills and contributed four total blocks, giving her 6.5 points.
Setter Avery Scoggins was huge in all parts of the game for the second straight match. Her 44 assists and 11 digs gave Arizona its third double-double of the match, but those things are expected from a setter.
Scoggins also had three kills on .286 hitting. She added three total blocks and three aces for 7.5 points.
Her serving was about more than just aces, though. Many of Arizona’s runs came with the sophomore at the service line. She served 20 times, including the final five points of the third set when Arizona had to fight off multiple set points.
Scoggins had another six-point service run when Arizona was pulling away in the fourth set. She went to the line with the Wildcats leading 17-15 and served an ace. When Arizona committed an attack error to end the run, she had another ace and her team led 22-16.
“Avery was phenomenal as a server,” Stubbs said. “I thought she went back there and she picked her line and she stayed aggressive.”
Wray and Cisneros also put pressure on the Houston serve receive game. Both served 17 times, trailing only Scoggins for the team lead. Both had an ace. Wray didn’t have a service error while Cisneros had just two. Wray’s longest service streak was six points in the first set, helping Arizona go from a 15-15 tie to a 20-16 lead. Cisneros went for four points in the second as the Wildcats trimmed Houston’s lead from 20-16 to 21-19.
Defensive specialist Giorgia Mandotti also gave Arizona some serving punch. She served 14 times with one ace. It’s especially important for her since she comes in just to serve.
“Gio coming in off the bench and giving us a steady position there is also helpful,” Stubbs said.
The first set was a tight affair until the final tie at 15. Heath’s kill gave Arizona the side out, then Wray stepped to the line to start her first serving streak. It was part of a 10-3 Arizona run to take the 1-0 lead.
The final tie in the second set came at 10-10, but this time it was Houston that took control. The Cougars established their first five-point lead at 19-14. Arizona got within one at 20-19, but UH pushed it back out to five points to take the win and even the match.
The third set was a rollercoaster ride. It very much felt like the team that won that set was going to take the match. For most of the set, it looked like that team would be Houston.
The Cougars had started imposing their block on Arizona in the second set when they had four blocks. They also started putting pressure on the Wildcats with their service game. UH had three aces in the set. Arizona ended the match with 10 aces, but none came in the second set.
Arizona lead at 17-15, then the Wildcats stalled. The Cougars went on an 8-0 run to get within two points of taking the a 2-1 lead in the match.
Mandotti was the first Arizona server to put the pressure on. She helped Arizona close the lead to 23-20, but Houston’s Bre Reid got one of her 17 kills to give the Cougars four match points.
Cisneros got the kill to wipe away the first set point. That brought Scoggins up to serve.
A bad Houston set. A Cougars timeout. A kill by Wilson. Another UH timeout. Another kill by Cisneros. A block by Heath and Vanek. An ace by Scoggins. Arizona was up 2-1.
Losing a set like that can take the wind out of team’s sails, but Houston responded early in the fourth. The Cougars led by as many as three points at 9-6, but Arizona chipped away.
The final tie came at 14-14. Scoggins’ last big service run started with Arizona leading 17-15 and ended at 22-16. Houston’s final push was a three-point run that brought them within 23-19, but the hole was too deep. Arizona finished off the match with a 25-19 win in set four to improve to 11-6 overall and 5-2 in the Big 12.
The three-game winning streak in the Big 12 is huge for the Wildcats. The conference has moved into second place in RPI according to the NCAA. Arizona has moved into sixth place in the 15-team league, tied with fourth-place Iowa State and fifth-place Kansas in record. The Wildcats lost head-to-head to the Jayhawks and will travel to Iowa State on Thursday. KU is ranked 15th and ISU is receiving votes in the AVCA poll.
Stubbs has learned a lot since last year about what each game could mean for her program as the Wildcats try to get to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018. All six of the Wildcats’ losses are to teams in the top 40 of the RPI as of the end of games on Oct. 18. Four of the six are versus teams in the top 25. They have six victories over top 100 teams, including a top 20 win. Houston narrowly misses being a seventh top 100 win with an RPI of 102 coming into the match.
”This year versus last year…going into [the second half of the Big 12 season], we know that these are teams that are in a position that could help us give a better case for ourselves,” Stubbs said.