EUGENE, Ore. -- Arizona volleyball pushed No. 15 Oregon to the brink, but fell in five sets in Eugene (25-22, 23-25, 18-25, 25-9, 15-10) on Friday night.
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Three different players had double-doubles for the Wildcats:
Kendra Dahlke (16 kills, 11 digs),
Paige Whipple (15 kills, 13 digs) and
Julia Patterson (47 assists, 11 digs).
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Dahlke's 16 kills led the match with Whipple finishing just behind with 15.
Candice Denny added eight while
Devyn Cross had seven kills on the night.
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UA had 11 blocks in the match, marking the 12th time this season that UA had double-digit blocks. Freshman
Katie Smoot finished with a career-high five to lead the Wildcats. Smoot had four kills and two aces to go along with her five blocks.
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Five Wildcats had double-digit digs in the five-set match.
Kimberly Gutierrez led UA with 15. Whipple had 13 while Dahlke and Patterson had 11 apiece. Redshirt sophomore
Victoria Svorinic, who entered the match with seven total career digs, had 10 in the match.
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The loss dropped the Wildcats to 8-11 (2-8 Pac-12) while Oregon improved to 12-5 (5-4 Pac-12).
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In the first, a late 8-3 Wildcat run cut a seven-point Oregon lead to 22-20, but the Ducks closed out the frame, winning 25-22. Whipple had seven kills on just 10 swings in the set while Svorinic, who entered the match with a career-high of two digs, had five digs in the set.
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The Cats responded with a 25-23 victory in the second set to even the match at intermission. Arizona had five blocks in the set to limit the Ducks to .133 hitting.
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Arizona led wire-to-wire in the third set, winning convincingly 25-18 to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
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Oregon returned the favor with a 25-9 victory in the fourth to force a fifth set.
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The Ducks won the fifth, 15-10 to close out the match.
Up Next: After a week off, Arizona will begin the second half of conference play by welcoming California (Friday) and Stanford (Sunday) to McKale next week.
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