The defense of No. 7 ASU women’s volleyball prompted the Sun Devils to a 3-0 victory over Oregon State University (25-18, 25-19, 25-20).
The back row played extremely well even without freshman setter Kylie Pickrell. Injured with a sprained MCL, Pickrell sat this entire match. ASU was forced to revert back to the 5-1 system it used last season.
ASU started the match on a 4-0 run and ran the lead up to 7-2.
OSU forced its way back into the match by creating Sun Devil errors. OSU went on a 10-5 run, forcing five hitting errors in the process.
ASU played how it did the last time it played with a 5-1 system: pushed the ball to senior outside hitter Macey Gardner. She had 14 attempts in the set, finishing with six kills and no errors.
ASU won 25-18 but head coach Jason Watson said his team wasn’t playing cleanly.
“I don’t feel like we were scoring points so much the recipient of them giving us points,” he said.
ASU’s defense came to life in the second set, and the back row was spectacular. Trailing early, a rocket was hit at sophomore libero Halle Harker.
Harker bumped it backward where senior setter Bianca Arellano chased it down and righting its trajectory, hitting it almost straight in the air. Senior Macey Gardner ran over, still behind the line, and powered it over the net to continue the rally.
At the end of the set, Harker, Gardner and Arellano had combined for 30 digs.
The net defense also perked up in the set. ASU had two blocks in the first, but six in the second. Senior middle blocker Whitney Follette had two block-assists, putting her at the third-most block-assists in ASU history.
Arellano also had two block assists in the set. Though she is just 5-foot 8-inches tall, she has stated that she can reach about 9-foot 7-inches when she jumps.
Junior outside hitter BreElle Bailey and senior middle blocker Mercedes Binns are taller and use it to their advantage. Both had two solo blocks in the set, Binns’ coming consecutively.
Set three had more errors from both teams than previous sets, and it limited ASU’s ability to pull away with the match.
ASU went up 11-9 and appeared to be gaining momentum, but Pickrell had a service error and a Gardner attempt hit the net.
With ASU leading 20-19, Gardner got a kill and Arellano followed by blocking Toner. It was Arellano’s third block of the match.
Gardner finished the match with consecutive kills.
ASU was able to contain the two OSU outside hitter threats: sophomore Mary-Kate Marshalland junior Lila Toner.
Marshall played on Watson’s team in China over the summer. She has good range and can maneuver the ball around the middles.
Watson was pleased with his team’s performance against her, limiting her to nine kills and a .158 percentage.
Toner hits the ball with immense power, but Gardner said the block was in her way.
“She was trying to hit around it,” Gardner said. “She was airing very high.”
Toner had a team-high 10 kills, but also had nine errors.
Gardner had a match-high 16 kills. Additionally, she had 11 digs. Arellano added 14 of her own and Harker had 18.
This is the first time since 1999 that ASU started Pac-12 play with a 2-0 record. With success comes obvious places for improvement — ASU has struggled to maintain momentum throughout the season.
“We’ve gotta be better for longer,” Watson said. “It’s easy to lose sight of that when you’re home.”
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow @Logan_Newsman on Twitter.
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