Wildcats Jacy Norton, left, and Dominque Lamb block a spike by Arizona State's Sara Todorovich in the second game of the UA's loss.

A.e. Araiza / arizona daily star

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The showdown between unranked rivals Arizona and Arizona State featured 15 lead changes.

But the Sun Devils were ahead when it mattered most, sweeping the Wildcat volleyball team 30-28, 30-28, 30-27 Wednesday night at McKale Center.

"It's typical Arizona volleyball," senior middle blocker Dominique Lamb said. "We make mistakes at critical times."

Lamb handed Arizona (13-13, 3-11 Pac-10) the Game 3 lead with a kill. After a timeout, ASU's Sarah Reaves tied it at 27 with a kill before the Devils took over the game with three consecutive points on a kill, a block and another kill to end the match.

"Unfortunately, that match is about only if," coach David Rubio said. "Only if we would have made the right play. Only if we would have, someone would have, kept that serve in. Only if we would have blocked right."

Arizona went ahead 27-25 in Game 1 with a Tiffany Owens' attack. After ASU (15-12, 7-7 Pac-10) tied it at 28 with a net violation, the Wildcats fell behind on a block out of bounds before a Staci Smith kill ended it.

"It has defined our season. Only if we could have played better between 25 and 30," Rubio said. "Game 1, Game 2, Game 3. It doesn't matter. We were in position (to win)."

The UA built a 22-15 lead in the second game. After an attack error by Jacy Norton cut the lead to 26-24, Owens had a kill to keep the Cats up by three.

"Hitting-wise, I was confident, but you can only do so much out there," said Owens, who tied her career best with 25 kills while hitting at a .435 pace.

Arizona was shut out of the next five points. Before setter Paige Weber sent the ball into the net on an attack error to end the game, the Sun Devils scored points on a service error, a kill, another Weber attack error and an ace.

"Game 2 is the one where we slipped like a lot of the losses that we played," Rubio said. "It's aggravating and it's frustrating, because of the fact that we're letting big leads slip. We're not playing well enough at the end of the game to win games or matches."