No. 16 ASU volleyball opened its season 3-0 after a successful road trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Friday and Saturday.
Most notably senior outside hitter Macey Gardner recorded her 1,700th career kill. Gardner is just the third Sun Devil to achieve this mark, following Christine Garner (1,871) and Sarah Reeves (1,796).
She recorded 28 total kills over the weekend, and had the most attempts, but junior outside hitter Cassidy Pickrell could figure to nearly equal her production.
Pickrell had 76 hits over the weekend and Gardner had 77.
Last year, Gardner was consistently the team leader in kills. She garnered the attention of every defensive player on the opposing side. Head coach Jason Watson has expressed hope that with improved depth, the ball will be spread more and Gardner won’t have as much attention upon her.
In the first weekend, his hopes have come true.
Another change was playing in the 6-2 offensive system. In the past, senior setter Bianca Arellano had complete control of the court and the passing game. With the addition of freshman setter Kylie Pickrell, Watson elected to play the two setters at once and have three hitters on the floor with them.
Kylie Pickrell had 57 assists over the weekend. Arellano had 52.
Led by these changes, ASU won all three matches over the weekend. The team started the season against Northeastern on Friday night, winning 25-16, 25-14 and 25-17. The floor was spread pretty evenly; Gardner, Pickrell and junior outside hitter BreElle Bailey each got between 18 and 22 hits.
The team had a block party against New Mexico State. Senior middle blockers Whitney Follette and Mercedes Binns each got nine blocks, and Bailey added seven of her own.
Overall, the team recorded 19 total blocks. It’s tied for the third-most blocks in the rally-scoring era in ASU history.
The match went five sets overall. ASU lost the first and almost dropped the second before mounting a furious comeback late in set two.
Trailing 19-13, ASU began forcing New Mexico State errors. ASU had six blocks in a 12-3 run, evening the match at one game apiece and winning the subsequent set. After losing set four, ASU finished the fifth set on a 9-0 run to win the second game of the weekend.
After getting off to a slow start against Air Force, ASU caught up in set one and won 25-23. They won the match in three sets behind Follette’s .455 hitting percentage and six more blocks.
ASU began the season with perfect weekend on the road. Next week, they’ll put their new system through another test when they head to Fort Collins to play three more games against Colorado State, Western Michigan, and Northern Colorado.
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow @Logan_Newsman on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
