At the east end of Wells Fargo Arena, the words “Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here” appear in bold lettering, as a reference to a haunting passage from Dante’s epic poem "Inferno."
The intimidation factor hasn’t exactly been there for ASU volleyball, who dropped to 0-5 at home with a straight-set loss to USC Friday night in Tempe.
After tonight's loss, ASU drops to 0-5 at home. Still looking to live up to the "Inferno" reference plastered in Wells Fargo Arena. pic.twitter.com/22H4TgBFoY
— Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21) November 5, 2016
“You want to be really good at home,” head coach Stevie Mussie said. “You want your home to be your perfect place where you put the fear of God in people who walk in your doors.”
It’s been the prerogative of ASU volleyball this season to open up early leads in their recent home matches, only to lose that fire, whether by committing errors or being overcome by an opponent’s size advantage.
After another inspired start, that pattern crept back into the Sun Devils’ performance Friday night.
In the opening frame, ASU clearly had a wealth of energy and power behind their shots, as they opened up a 12-9 lead behind four kills from true freshman Ivana Jeremic, who finished the match with a double-double on 10 kills and 10 digs.
Jeremic, who also had ten kills in a prior loss to USC – a 3-1 defeat in early October – earned her third straight match with double-digit kills.
“I’m super excited (about her potential as a freshman,)“ Mussie said. “She’s a great kid, she works hard everyday. We ask her to do a lot of different things and she has kind of progressed as this season has gone on.”
After the Trojans fought back to take a 24-21 lead, the Sun Devils ripped off three in a row to force a deuce, but USC finished strong to win the set, 27-25 – a difficult first-set loss for ASU.
“It’s always, ‘hey, you’re in it, you’re in this thing,’” Mussie said of her message to the team after the first set. “It’s the same team, it’s the same bodies on the floor, so you have to be really mindful and not allow the runs to happen.
"You can win, that’s the hardest thing in a season like this is that you can win and you are going to win if you stay the course.”
Although they couldn’t put points on the board when it mattered most, the Sun Devils were much stronger as a whole from the get-go. This was made most apparent by the scoreboard, but also by a .143 hit percentage in the opening frame, a solid improvement for a team that has seen sub-.100 hit percentages on multiple occasions.
ASU finished the game with an overall hit percentage mark of .136.
Despite that hard-fought, disciplined performance in the first set, the Sun Devils seemed to be deflated by its heartbreaking nature, as they opened the second with three quick errors on their way to a 7-0 deficit.
ASU ended up dropping that set, 25-14 thanks to a hit percentage of just .057 and entered the halftime break once again trailing 2-0.
The third set saw a bit more fight from the Sun Devils, but ended with the same result, as ASU fell by a tally of 25-18.
“It’s maturity,” Mussie said of her team’s flat performance in the second. “Granted we have some older players on the floor, but it’s a maturity thing. As you get older and you get into those positions more often, you don’t let it happen.”
There won’t be much time for the Sun Devils to dwell on yet another tough home loss, as another challenging foe looms in less than 24 hours.
ASU takes on No. 9 UCLA at Wells Fargo Arena Saturday night at 6 p.m.
Reach the reporter at jeff.griffith21@asu.edu or follow @Jeff_Griffith21 on Twitter.
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