TUCSON, Ariz. -- No. 13 Utah volleyball defeated Arizona in four sets on Friday evening in McKale Center (25-18, 25-23, 23-25, 25-23).
 
The Wildcats hung tough with the 13th-ranked Utes, including storming back with six straight points in the third set to win. The Cats fell by two points in both the second and fourth sets.
 
"There were some opportunities that we didn't take advantage of against a really good team," said head coach Dave Rubio. "We put ourselves in position almost every set, except for the first set. It's a little frustrating that we didn't play a little cleaner. Game four we missed a serve, got aced, hitting error. At 22-21 we were up and they we just kind of error-ed ourselves out of the last set."
 
The loss ended a six-match winning streak in the series for Arizona, which upset No. 17 Utah in McKale Center a year ago.
 
Kendra Dahlke led the Wildcats with 17 kills, marking the ninth time, and sixth time in UA's last seven matches, that she has led the Cats in kills. She also tallied a career-most six blocks on the nights, including two solo efforts.
 
Arizona's defense was excellent on the night. UA outblocked Utah 10-8 and had 70 digs in the match. The Cats held Utah to .156 hitting, well under its .285 clip on the season entering the match. Makenna Martin recorded UA's first 20-dig effort of the season; her 21 digs mark a new career high for the libero.
 
Julia Patterson posted 42 assists in the match and paired them with 13 digs for her eighth double-double of 2017. She is one off the Pac-12 lead.
 
Candice Denny continued her torrid start to Pac-12 play. The freshman, who entered Friday fourth in the league with a .409 hitting percentage in Pac-12 matches, had seven kills on .500 hitting in the match. She added four blocks. 
 
McKenzie Jacobson provided Arizona a huge spark off the bench. The redshirt senior, who played the final three sets of the match, had eight kills on .500 hitting with three blocks.
 
"I think there are a lot of positives," said Rubio. "I think there are a lot of really good things that came out of tonight. We were down 0-2, came back, really fought our way back. Lost a tough game two, which we kind of gave that set away. We didn't let go of the rope. We kind of hung in there. Really competed to get ourselves to win game three. Game four, we again put ourselves in position. I thought we blocked well. We did a great job defensively. A lot of really good things. It's just we're not steady and consistent enough from one point in the rally to the next point in the rally. That's the inconsistency that plagued us tonight. A lot of things that normally plague us, came back to us."
 
With the loss, Arizona fell to 8-8, 2-5 Pac-12 on the season. The 13th-ranked Utes improved to 15-3, 6-1 Pac-12.
 
The Utes took the opening set,  25-18, outhitting Arizona .256-.156 in the process. Both teams had 21 digs in the first set; UA was led in that department by Kimberly Gutierrez, who had seven off the bench.
 
Utah carried that momentum into an early lead in the second, but UA used a 6-1 run to turn a 14-9 Utah lead into a 15-15 tie. The two teams traded runs the remainder of the set. After Arizona tied the set at 23 apiece, Utah scored the final two points to win the set 25-23.
 
In the third, the Utes appeared poised to sweep the Cats. They erased Arizona's hot start (6-1) and went up 23-19, two points from the sweep. Arizona, however, scored the set's final six points to force a fourth set.
 
In a back-and-forth fourth set, Arizona used a late surge to take a 22-21 lead, but following a Ute timeout, Utah scored four of the final five points to win the set, 25-23, to take the match.

Up Next: The Cats wrap up a four-match homestand on Sunday at 1 p.m. vs. Colorado.
 
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