No. 16 ASU women’s volleyball won both matches on Saturday, defeating New Mexico State 3-2 (22-25, 25-22, 25-18, 20-25, 15-7) and Air Force (25-23, 25-13, 25-17).
Senior outside hitter Macey Gardner tallied her 1,700 career kill against Air Force, making her the third ASU player to do so.
Despite this, her role appears to be changing from what it has been in years past.
Granted, Gardner is still leading the team in hits this season (38 against New Mexico State and 20 against Air Force) but she isn't the overwhelming team leader in that category.
Additionally, her hitting percentage has been dropping. She hit .132 in the afternoon game before coming back with a solid .300 in the evening.
Junior outside hitter Cassidy Pickrell had more kills than Gardner in both of Saturday's games with 12 on 27 attempts.
Pickrell's hitting percentages were low, though. She hit a modest .259 against Air Force, but had nine errors against New Mexico State. She hit .185 on the day.
Senior middle blocker Whitney Follette had a huge day. Against New Mexico State, she had 12 kills on 19 attempts with only three errors, good for a .474 hitting percent. Against Air Force, she was 7-11 with two errors.
She also had a combined 15 blocks in the two games. Nine of them came against New Mexico State. Senior middle blocker Mercedes Binns added nine of her own.
ASU had 19 total blocks against the Aggies, which ties their third-highest amount of blocks in the rally-scoring era.
Junior outside hitter Kizzy Ricedorff made a large impact in her new role on the team. She came off the bench in all three games this weekend, a change from last season, when she secured a spot as a starting outside hitter.
Despite coming off the bench, she finished the day with 14 total kills and had the highest hitting percentage of any outside hitter. She hit .406 and only had one error on the day.
She did not have a single error in the close match against New Mexico State, in which ASU had to come back after losing the first set.
The Sun Devils fell behind quickly in the second set as well, trailing 2-8. Ricedorff kept ASU close within striking distance with two kills, but a kill from senior middle blocker Gwen Murphy put New Mexico State up by eight.
Ricedorff got a kill and then blocked a hit, which pushed ASU to a 7-2 run. After blocking a New Mexico hit to tie the score at 21, ASU pulled ahead and won the set 25-22.
ASU won the third set and dropped the fourth. In the fifth set, with the score tied at seven, junior outside hitter BreElle Bailey had three consecutive kills. ASU finished the match with on a 9-0 run.
ASU started slow against Air Force as well. The Sun Devils needed five kills from Follette and three late Air Force errors to pull out a 25-23 victory. ASU didn’t have much trouble in the latter two sets, winning 25-13 and 25-17.
Throughout the weekend, ASU continued playing with the 6-2 system, using two setters at a time. Against New Mexico State, freshman setter Kylie Pickrell had 24 assists and senior setter Bianca Arellano had 23. They both had 16 against Air Force.
While Arellano remains the sole starting setter and still appears to be the leader of the offense, her role is smaller than in previous years.
ASU finished the first weekend of the season 3-0.
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