Saturday’s Red-Blue intrasquad scrimmage showed some of the promise of the 2026 Arizona Wildcats and answered some of the questions, but there were still some left open when the Red team emerged victorious in four sets (20-25, 27-25, 25-18, 15-10).
Red was superior in kills (56-35), hitting percentage (.181 to .109), and blocking (10.0 to 5.0). Both teams had four aces, but they struggled overall on serve.
The initial team lineups were made to be as competitive as possible. Neither team was dominated by presumed starters or returners from last year’s team. After the second set, the roster was shaken up where more of the returners and presumed starters were stacked on the Blue team, but that didn’t slow down the Red squad.
The Blue team started with Carlie Cisneros and Payton Woods at outside hitter, Britt Carlson at opposite, Journey Tucker and Maya Flemister at middle blocker, Harmony Sample setting, and Brenna Ginder at libero.
Red featured Destiny Ndam-Simpson and Hayden Reeder on the left side, Kennedy Osunsanmi on the right, Mo Siapani at setter, Kristen Dear and Marina Vosloo at middle, and Brookelyn Hatton at libero.
Eventually, Ginder, Ndam-Simpson, Osunsanmi, Flemister, Carlson, and Woods would flip sides. Hatton took off the libero jersey in favor of freshman Gigi Whann for a while, as well.
A big concern for Arizona has been who would score after the graduation of Jordan Wilson. Ndam-Simpson showed that she’s ready to step into that role.
“She can do all do it all as an attacker,” said Arizona head coach Rita Stubbs.
The transfer from Creighton had 24 kills on .177 hitting. She was both more efficient and effective in the first two sets when on the Red team. She had 17 kills on .263 hitting before switching sides.
“I have a lot of things that I’ve been working on that I’ve been growing in attacking and passing, especially passing,” Ndam-Simpson said. “Building consistency there has been huge for me, and continuing to just have confidence and belief in myself that I can do it.”
Woods had some success on the attack, but she also showed where she needs to improve her game. She had 4 kills, but they were offset by 5 errors. The strongest part of her game turned out to be her block, where she was good for 3 total blocks. Two of them were solo.
“It’s something to make the right sides think,” Woods said of her blocking. “Normally, right sides is like one of your big attackers. They’re normally really tall. So for me, just focusing on getting up and over the net, pressing, taking their best swing, and it definitely helps the defense. Especially when I’m in middle back and I have a good block set up.”
The Wildcats got scoring on the right side from all three opposites. Each stood out in different ways. Carlson didn’t play in the fourth set, but she ended her three-set day with 7 kills on .208 hitting and a team-high 6 total blocks. Osunsanmi had 9 kills on .259 hitting and 1 total block. Renee Jones, who played all four sets on the Red team, had 5 kills on 13 swings without an error. She also threw in a block assist.
The Red team had a wrinkle in their rotation with Siapani occasionally coming out for an opposite when she rotated to the front row. The Wildcats went without a setter on those occasions with the libero typically bump setting the ball. The change was to address the issue of having a small setter in the front row.
“That’s something that we’re going to have to do if she’s the setter that wins out,” Stubbs said. “You know, the teams are going to go right after her because she has a small presence, and so you put a bigger block in because we have three opposites that are able to play, and then you run that offense that time without a setter on the floor. We have people that are capable.”
In the middle, Tucker tied Carlson with 6 total blocks, but one of hers was solo. She also had 5 kills but countered with 5 errors for a .000 hitting percentage.
When asked to name a player who was especially impressive, Stubbs singled out Flemister. The sophomore played on both teams. She had 2 kills on 5 swings without an error. She added 5 total blocks.
“She showed that she was able to play the entire time, and as a blocker and as an attacker, so she stood out in a good way to me,” Stubbs said.
The competition for setter continues to be the biggest question for Arizona. Sample is taller and she spread the ball around nicely, finding her opposites on a regular basis. However, the hitters on Siapani’s team were more efficient. Her sets turned into kills at a .357 clip while Sample’s scored at a .248 clip. Siapani actually had 6 fewer attempts than Sample, but her side scored on 41 of her sets compared to 30 for Sample.
The biggest problem for all of the Wildcats was serving. As the match wore on, it became a war of service errors.
“We have to be able to serve the ball in the court,” Stubbs said. “That goes without saying. There is a philosophy, if you just go after it as hard as you can, eventually it’ll go in. But we’re missing balls that were way too long, that there was not a chance that it was going to go in. So for me, it’s about serving and passing, and then everything else will come.”
Overall, though, there were positives that came out of the scrimmage if only getting on the floor in front of fans.
“We didn’t serve very well, but I’m excited about the group, and I’m excited that they got a reality check of what volleyball looks like and what we need to do more of,” Stubbs said.