The women's volleyball team celebrates after a home game in Tempe against UA. No. 16 ASU (12-1) swept the Arizona Wildcats Tuesday night, (Photo by Andrew Ybanez)
No. 16 ASU (12-1) swept the Arizona Wildcats out of Tempe Tuesday night, fighting back in the third set to earn the team’s first conference win and a half-point in the Territorial Cup Series.
ASU improved to 48-43 in the all-time rivalry series with the win.
ASU coach Jason Watson said the Wildcats gave his team trouble at times, using the serve to do so.
“That’s about as good as I have seen Arizona play,” Watson said.
The first set featured 12 ties as ASU and UA traded points. But a big block from sophomore middle blocker Whitney Follette and sophomore setter Bianca Arellano locked in the first set victory for the Sun Devils. Follette had a huge first set, racking up four kills and two blocks.
“I’ve been really impressed with the setter/hitter relationship that (Follette) has been developing with (Arellano),” Watson said. “It’s nice for us to be able to score points in the middle for a change.”
If the first set was back and forth, the second set was all about streaks. UA went on a 5-0 run, followed shortly by a 4-0 ASU run. The Wildcats responded with a 4-0 run of their own, but it was all ASU after that and the Sun Devils stole the set 25-21.
The second set saw the decreased effectiveness of UA junior outside hitter Madi Kingdon. The Phoenix native had nine errors to go along with her nine kills on 32 attempts after two sets, good for a .000 hitting percentage.
“I thought we pressured her a little bit,” Watson said. “She made some uncharacteristic hitting errors for her that I thought were a result of just putting some pressure on her with the block.”
The Sun Devils trailed by as much as six points in the third set, but fought back to tie it up at 17.
“I thought the momentum in game three had shifted entirely to Arizona,” Watson said. “But I did think that in each of the three games that we played today we were the cleaner team from 20 on.”
With junior outside hitter Jane Croson serving, UA went on a run and had two set points.
“Jane’s jump serve gave us a lot more trouble than we were expecting,” Watson said. “We felt like all the other rotations were good for us and that that one would come around.”
After Arellano made a play at the scorers table and nearly went over it, ASU broke up Croson’s serve. Tied at 24, Arellano, not using her jump serve, recorded an ace to give the Sun Devils match point. Freshman outside hitter BreElle Bailey and Follette stuffed Kingdon to lock in the victory.
“Our team is known for finishing in games that are close and we’ve done that all season,” Bailey said. “We just stay calm and focused and finish the game.”
Gardner finished with just 13 kills, hitting at a rate of .073 because of 10 errors. Follette and Bailey filled the void, combining for 18 kills and the game-winning block.
Bailey said the crowd of 2,293 raucous fans energized her and her teammates in the final moments.
“We just feed off of their energy,” Bailey said. “The crowd makes the game worthwhile.”
Given the circumstances, Watson was also impressed by the fan turnout.
“You get this many people in the stands you want to make sure they leave happy, especially this early in the season,” Watson said. “For an 8 o’clock Tuesday match, it was a nice crowd.”
From the service line, ASU did without Arellano’s jump serve because she had two service errors in the first set.
Watson said it was locked in during Monday’s practice and joked that he should have stopped her then.
“I don’t want to say it’s feast or famine but I certainly think if she’s feeling it we let her go,” Watson said. “She knows better than anyone if she’s feeling it.”
Next up, the Sun Devils travel to Palto Alto, Calif. for a Friday night matchup against the No. 7 Stanford Cardinal.
Reach the reporter at bmargiot@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @BenMargiott.
