After rallying from the brink of defeat, the ASU volleyball team fell just three points shy of earning a weekend sweep of Oregon State and No. 20 Oregon.
The Sun Devils (11-14, 5-7 Pac-10) swept the Beavers (8-19, 1-12) on Friday night before losing a five-set heartbreaker to the Ducks (17-8, 5-8) on Saturday.
ASU has now won three in a row against OSU, while Saturday night’s defeat pushes the Sun Devils to six straight losses against the Ducks.
It was a trying weekend for ASU from the start.
Despite entering Friday night’s contest stuck in a nine-match losing streak, OSU was unwilling to fold easily.
State Press Television By F. Diamond Grijalva
The opening set saw ASU fight through 14 tie scores and eight lead changes as senior outside hitter Sarah Reaves led the Sun Devil attack. Reaves pounded seven kills while hitting a .333 attack percentage to help capture the 30-28 set one victory.
“Offensively it was the passing,” junior setter Cat Highmark said. “The passing was great [Friday] night and in the third, fourth, and fifth games the passing was great [Saturday] too.”
It was more of the same in round two with 10 tie scores and three lead changes. OSU sophomore outside hitter Camille Saxton caught fire and finished with a career high 15 kills in the match. Saxton’s effort wasn’t enough for OSU thanks to seven more kills from Reaves for a 25-19 set two win.
Behind sophomore outside hitter Malia Marquardt’s three block assists in set three, the Sun Devils sealed the deal, 25-16, to sweep the Beavers 3-0.
The Sun Devils quickly found themselves in an uphill battle against the Ducks on Saturday night.
State Press Television By Alexandra Clark
UO jumped all over ASU with 25-20 and 25-12 wins in the first two sets.
Late in set two, ASU coach Jason Watson called on sophomore middle blocker Alexis Pinson to step in.
“I thought we needed to get more production out of the [second middle blocker],” Watson said. “I thought it was a position that could score some points for us. I think she went 8-for-9, so clearly that was correct.”
Pinson finished with eight kills and three block assists to provide a solid spark for the Sun Devils.
“She's clearly a little bit better offensively than she is defensively, but she responded to the challenge admirably,” Watson said. “It's going to be difficult for us to find an excuse not to keep her on that floor now. She certainly made a statement with that performance.”
After two disappointing sets, ASU headed to the locker room with its back against the wall.
“The most important thing that we told them is from now on, it has to be our personality, our intensity, our determination,” Watson said. “Let’s not worry about all these systems, let’s not worry about all of these tendencies. Let’s just go out and be better at being us, and they responded to it.”
Whether it was Reaves, Pinson, Marquardt or freshman outside hitter Danica Mendivil, the Sun Devil offense was firing on all cylinders en route to 25-21 and 25-16 set wins to tie the match at 2-2.
A decisive fifth set was needed, and the Ducks jumped to an early 3-0 lead. ASU played comeback once again to knot the score at 11-11.
At 12-14, a kill from UO sophomore outside hitter Katherine Fischer gave the Ducks a 15-12 set win and ASU the 2-3 loss.
In the end, ASU was unable to complete the improbable comeback.
“We didn’t get the outcome we wanted but we pushed,” Pinson said. “We showed ourselves we can fight. We’ve just got to push a little bit more.”
Reach the reporter at gregory.dillard@asu.edu
