On March 5, ASU beach volleyball celebrated its first sweep of the season by defeating the Colorado Mesa Mavericks 5-0. Playing for the first time since that defeat, CMU (0-7) failed to step up its game, leading to a 4-1 Sun Devil victory.
In the first set of the New Mexico Spring Break VB Tournament, ASU’s top duo juniors Bianca Arellano and Whitney Follette fell 16-21 to CMU pair Taylor Woods and Erin Perez. In their last meeting, the Arellano and Follette took victory early on in the night, winning the first two sets quickly. However, their initial shortcoming tonight led to 21-11 and 15-6 wins in the second and third set.
Beach volleyball interim head coach Jacquelyn Bunker felt the windy weather conditions contributed to this.
“A lot of our teams sort of had a slow start, but then were able to learn from those mistakes and improve as the matches went on,” Bunker said in a phone interview after the match.
No. 2 pair, sophomores Kwyn Johnson and Sydney Palmer, swept CMU’s Hana Peterman and Naomi Pinnecoose with scores of 21-15 and 21-19. They weren’t the only team to sweep.
ASU’s fourth team, junior Mia Rivera and freshman Jourdan Parnell, and fifth team, sophomore Frances Giedraitis and senior Logan Rae, gave CMU no second chances.
When the Sun Devils faced Long Beach State University on the road last weekend, the only team to pick up a victory was No. 3 duo Madison Berridge and Bethany Wedepohl. However, the duo changed gears tonight, landing them as the only team to lose tonight against Colorado Mesa.
The defeat was not a blowout as the pairs played nearly equal, only losing the first set 20-22. Although Berridge and Wedepohl widened the gap with a 21-11 win in the second set, they ultimately trailed 11-15 in the third and final set of the night.
“They made a couple of errors that were uncharacteristic of them,” Bunker said. “It got close, but a game like that on a windy day, it’s pretty much anyone’s game at that point.”
With a win tonight in their back pocket and a confidence boost, the Sun Devils (4-4) will face New Mexico State and fight for a win against their first loss of the season, New Mexico, tomorrow.
Reach the reporter at ncorr@asu.edu or follow @natalieorr19 on Twitter.
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