TUCSON, Ariz. -- Twenty-first-ranked Arizona led No. 22 Washington State two sets to zero, but couldn't close out the match as the Cougars stormed back to defeat the Wildcats (20-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-20, 15-13) on Sunday afternoon in McKale Center.
 
Arizona (14-4, 3-3 Pac-12), which was without two starters due to injury this week, was swept at home by No. 15 Washington and No. 22 Washington State a week after picking up a road sweep at No. 15 Oregon and Oregon State last week.
 
"We were much better than Friday," said head coach Dave Rubio. "I knew that we would play much better, and we did. It's unfortunate that we didn't play like this against Washington on Friday and it's a tough loss when it's that close."
 
Arizona out-killed (66-65), out-dug (69-64) and out-aced (6-3) the Cougars (13-3, 4-2 Pac-12) in the match, but Washington State had 14 blocks to Arizona's nine in the match, which proved to be the difference.
 
"(Washington State is) a tough matchup for us and they're physically much bigger than we are," said Rubio. "Considering that we have two starters out and we're trying to find some type of offense, I thought we did really well. It's unfortunate that we weren't rewarded for that, but they played really well to win the close fifth set."
 
Kendra Dahlke led the Wildcats with 23 kills, her 13th career 20-plus-kill match in her career, moving into seventh place alone in UA history. Dahlke had 13 digs as well for her Pac-12-best 12th double-double of the season. Julia Patterson also posted a double-double with 51 assists and 12 digs in the match. She added four kills and a block as well.
 
"I thought we played very well our first two and a half sets," said Patterson. "I thought we were very clean and efficient, and then once we got that big lead, they called a couple of timeouts and we got a little too comfortable, and that's when they started coming back."
 
Devyn Cross finished with a career-high 14 kills on .545 hitting and added three blocks on the afternoon. Katie Smoot tied her career high with nine kills in the match.
 
Makenna Martin led UA with 17 of its 69 digs in the match. She was one of three Wildcats with at least 10.
 
The Wildcats hit .310 in the opening set, led by a perfect 5-for-5 (1.000) combined effort from their middle blockers (Hayes and Cross) and the Cats won the first set 25-20. Kendra Dahlke had six kills to lead the way for UA.
 
Washington State led early on in the second set, extending to a 16-13 lead before the Wildcats started their comeback. A 5-2 UA run would help turn the tables for Arizona, which pulled away for a 25-22 victory in the second set.
 
Despite outhitting Washington State .325-.289, UA dropped the third set, 25-23.
 
Washington State dominated the fourth, 25-20, to force a fifth set.
 
The Cougars scored five of the first six points in the fifth and were running away with it until UA stormed back to tie the fifth set at 13. WSU took the final two points, though, to put away the match.
 
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Up Next                                                                                          
Arizona heads to LA next weekend to face UCLA (Friday) and USC (Sunday) as Pac-12 play continues.