Friday wasn’t just a difficult day for Arizona volleyball as a team. In their split against UTEP and Northwestern, star outside hitter Sofia Maldonado Diaz struggled with errors. In the morning loss to the Miners, it was 10 errors against 10 kills. In the evening win over New Mexico State, it was 10 errors to 12 kills. On Saturday morning, the sophomore returned to normal, hitting .300 with 17 kills. It was the difference between the Wildcats going 1-2 or 2-1 over the weekend.
With Maldonado Diaz contributing 17 kills, an assist, an ace, three digs, and a block while only committing five errors, Arizona was able to squeak out the five-set victory (20-25, 27-25, 25-17, 15-25, 17-15) against a Northwestern team that head coach Dave Rubio called a “big, physical, kind of normal Big Ten type of team.