The ASU women's volleyball team traveled to Arlington, Texas on Friday to finish out their non-conference schedule. The Sun Devils (8-2) won their first match of the UT Arlington Maverick Classic against Lamar University in three sets.
The first set started off with a few attack errors from the Sun Devils, which allowed Lamar to jump up to an early 4-3 advantage.
ASU was able to gain momentum once junior middle blocker Carmen Unzue notched an important kill, bringing the score to eight a piece.
The momentum was on the Sun Devils' side for the rest of the set, and at one point, they jumped to a 14-10 lead thanks to a 4-1 run midway through. From there, ASU never let up in the opening frame, beating the Cardinals 25-19.
The second set proved difficult for the team. They initially jumped out to a 2-1 lead with the help of sophomore outside hitter Ivana Jeremic who contributed an ace, but then faced a deficit soon thereafter from attack errors.
The lead went back and forth between both teams for the majority of the set with the Cardinals even taking a one-point lead near the end of the set by sophomore middle blocker Dannisha House.
Despite this attempt to steal the second set, an attack error would be detrimental to Lamar’s run. Kills by junior opposite hitter Peyton Grahovac, Jeremic and sophomore setter Nicole Peterson would push the Sun Devils to a 25-23 victory.
The third and final set of the day was no different in terms of intensity. Jeremic made the first kill of the set, but the Cardinals would not let up. Lamar’s junior outside hitter Murielle Hlavac put up three straight kills early in the set, but a kill by freshman outside hitter Griere Hughes and an attack error by Hlavac put the momentum on ASU’s side.
The Sun Devils began to pull away from the Cardinals late in the third set, with three kills by Hughes once again and a ball handling error by freshman setter Molly Shade. ASU won the final match 25-18.
Senior middle blocker Oluoma Okaro led ASU with 15 kills followed closely by Hughes, with 13. Senior libero Halle Harker led the team in digs with 18. For the Cardinals, House and junior outside hitter/middle blocker Tomar Thomas led the team with 11 kills each.
Head coach Sanja Tomasevic spoke on the team's performance after the match.
"We are fortunate to kick start the weekend with a victory," Tomasevic said. "Despite the win, there are obvious areas in need of improvement that will be addressed moving forward. We hope to catch our stride tomorrow morning."
The Sun Devils are now 8-2 on the season and will continue the tournament Saturday where they will take on Houston Baptist University at 8 a.m. followed by the University of Texas at Arlington at 4 p.m.
Reach the reporter at klbroder@asu.edu or follow @KellyB1459 on Twitter.
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