After dropping the last match against Stanford on the road earlier this season, ASU flipped the script and came out on top in home territory. The Sun Devils upset the No. 3 Cardinal by way of the sweep, snapping their 28-match win streak in the Pac-12.
ASU started with a solid first set, leading for the majority and taking the first game 25-16. The Sun Devils came out the gate playing one of their better defensive matches against Pac-12 competition, serving and blocking-wise. Not to mention their consistency in holding a potent offense.
“We knocked them off the net and defended exactly how we said we would,” head coach JJ Van Niel said. “Before the match, we talked about what it takes to have an upset, and one thing we’ve done all year is run a fast offense. Playing a physical team like theirs, you have to beat them with speed, and we did so by playing recklessly and at a high level.”
It made the Sun Devils capable of twisting around the Cardinal’s game compared to their last match-up, which caused Stanford to commit 14 errors uncharacteristically. Holding them to their lowest hitting percentage of the season at .194, the first time this season they were under .200 offensively.
“All week, we worked hard on our defense knowing we wanted to come into this match playing relentlessly and be gritty toward the ball,” graduate student libero Mary Shroll said. “We showed that having that mindset on the court helped frustrate them a little bit.”
In the second set, ASU wasn’t able to build as comfortable a lead compared to the first game. They tied 13 times until the team finally broke away with heavy offense with seven straight points to win 25-21 and go up 2-0 in the match.
“Getting a seven-point run is amazing,” Shroll said. “Having that forward focus on the next play and those long rallies and wins is a huge energy and confidence booster. It can be disheartening and frustrating for the other team. I knew when we won that rally, we had this game.”
In cases like these, ASU sees it all to be a mental challenge. Making sure they stay on their toes in the game when it comes to winning back-and-forth or rally-back type sets.
“I don’t think any girl looked at the scoreboard,” Van Niel said. “We’ve been in matches where I’ve seen them look up constantly, and in this game, they weren’t. Instead, they’ll think, ‘What’s the next play?’ Staying emotionally and mentally strong was good for us today.”
In the third and final set, ASU kept all factors of their game strong, leading to beat Stanford 25-14, earning both their second top-5 win in the Van Niel era and their sixth of all time.
“At the end of the day, a lot of sports are about being confident,” Van Niel said. “You can try to fake and give your team confidence, but these are the kind of matches I hope the team takes to heart to get fired up, proving this is how good they can be. If we can play like that, we can beat anyone.”
After their last game against Stanford and their tough loss against Colorado last weekend, the Sun Devils knew they needed to come home and bounce back, and that’s precisely what they did, getting back-to-back sweeps at home.
“I always believe you learn way more when you lose,” senior opposite hitter Marta Levinska said. “We learned a lot individually, and we knew that going against Stanford, we cannot be scared or timid. We have to go all out, and we did, and now we know that this is the level that we can play, and we’ll have to keep that going forward.”
With their newfound confidence, the Sun Devils will head to California to face USC and UCLA for the second time this season.
Edited by Vincent DeAngelis, Walker Smith and Angelina Steel.
Reach the reporter at linunez@asu.edu and follow @laurentahuka on X.
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