ASU women’s volleyball swept two more teams on Saturday, defeating Western Michigan (25-15, 25-16, 25-22) and Northern Colorado (25-22, 25-15, 25-23).
"It was a solid weekend," ASU head coach Jason Watson said. "I felt we got a return on being challenged last weekend."
ASU middle blockers continued to dominate as they have all season.
Against WMU, senior Whitney Follette had eight kills on 12 attempts and only had one error. Senior Mercedes Binns had 20 attempts, her most of the season, and killed 12 of them. She had two errors.
In the match against NC, Follette hit 50 percent. She had no errors and five kills. Binns had six kills on eight attempts with one error.
Their high hitting percentages have been the catalyst of ASU’s young season. Binns and Follette routinely get kills on 40 percent of their attempts.
Defensively, they’re impressive. Binns assisted on five blocks in both matches, and Follette had six against CU.
Overall, the defense was a highlight of the team.
Against WMU, four ASU players finished with double-digit digs and freshman setter Kylie Pickrell added nine of her own. The team finished with 66 in the game, nine more than WMU.
From this and eight total team blocks, WMU was limited to an 11.8 percent hitting percentage. Sophomore middle blocker Sydney LeMay and junior middle blocker Nicole Kinser, with 28 and 25 hits, respectively, combined for .037 hitting accuracy.
WMU didn’t put up much resistance in the first two sets. In the first, ASU went on a big run after the score was tied at eight. The Sun Devils pulled ahead 17-11 before pulling away in the set.
They won 25-15 in set one and 25-16 in set two.
WMU went ahead 7-11 in the third, but Follette and senior outside hitter Macey Gardner each got a couple kills to help ASU grab the lead. ASU ran with it, winning 25-22.
The match against NC was opposite; the Bears started quickly before faltering in the second and collapsing in the third.
CSU led mid-first set, up 15-16 before Kylie connected with her sister for a kill. It was the first of three consecutive Cassidy kills, each of which came from a different assister (Kylie, senior setter Bianca Arellano and senior outside hitter Macey Gardner). Up 18-16, ASU continued outplaying the Bears and won 25-22.
The Sun Devils won the second set 25-15 and the third 25-13.
After a relatively inconsistent start to the season for outside hitters, their hitting percentages were high on Saturday.
BreElle Bailey hit .280 against WMU before having her finest game of the season against CU. She had nine kills and no errors, hitting .429.
Additionally, Gardner hit .281 against WMU before racking up 10 kills on .360 hitting against CU.
Accurate hitting and strong defense helped ASU win two more matches and sweeping the weekend against three schools.
"We head home with a couple of road wins and an idea on where we need to go from here to continue to get better," Watson said.
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow @Logan_Newsman on Twitter.
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