Three road tournaments in three weekends can be a lot to start the season, and ASU volleyball has kicked things off at 8-1. The Sun Devils traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska on the back of two undefeated weekends in Nashville, Tennessee and San Diego, California.
ASU took on Wichita State on Thursday, which got voted to finish second in their conference from a coaches' poll. The Shockers are led by redshirt senior middle blocker Morgan Stout and fifth-year setter Izzi Strand.
ASU overall controlled the pace of the match, and junior outside hitter, Bailey Miller led the way with 13 kills and a career-high 0.706 hitting percentage. Sophomore outside hitter, Jillian Neal, added four aces and graduate middle blocker, Savannah Kjolhede, had six blocks as the Sun Devils won in straight sets.
Friday was a whole different beast, as ASU played No. 5 Nebraska. Going into this game, the Sun Devils knew this was their biggest challenge yet.
"Especially in Nebraska, just the sheer size of it is new," graduate libero Mary Shroll said about the home crowd. "It's just going to be controlling what we can control, and really trying to drown out that noise."
Nebraska already had a top resume going into this weekend, gathering wins over ranked teams like Kentucky and Creighton and only having one loss at SMU.
Senior Husker, Merritt Beason, led the way for Nebraska with 15 kills. Sophomores Harper Murray and Andi Jackson added 10 kills each as the Cornhuskers hit a team percentage of 0.319. ASU senior outside hitter, Geli Cyr put up 14 kills of her own, but despite the 16 digs from Shroll, ASU couldn't keep up defensively. They put up 46 digs and 3 blocks compared to Nebraska's 55 and 7 respectively.
One key difference between the teams is height.
"We're always working on swinging high hands. I think that is going to be a big focus going in," Shroll said before the tournament. "We don't have that height, so just using what we can to our advantage, running that speed and passing in system."
Another big focus for the Sun Devils was their serve. ASU averaged over eight aces per game going into Friday.
"We're just going to have to make sure our serves are so aggressive that we don't have to worry about their middles being involved," graduate middle blocker Claire Jeter said. "We might miss more serves, but we need to be aggressive."
The Sun Devils failed to get a single ace against the Huskers.
Both teams were taking risks, with 12 serving errors for ASU and 11 for Nebraska. Nebraska earned two aces for their efforts and a strong defensive stand held ASU from benefiting from their aggression. Despite the showing, head coach JJ Van Neil was happy with their serving.
"So when I went and rewatched the match,I thought there was some really good stuff that we did from the service line," he said.
ASU certainly battled, but Nebraska got the better of them in the top 15 matchup, taking the game 3-0.
Saturday, ASU took on Long Beach State, a team projected to finish third in the Big West. Despite falling behind early in the second and third set, the Sun Devils completed a sweep over the Beach. Cyr led the team once again with 12 kills, Shroll added 13 more digs and Kjolhede had five blocks in a complete performance from the Sun Devils. Natalie Glenn had 14 kills and 10 digs for the Beach.
ASU returns home for their final tournament of the regular season Thursday as they face Prairie View A&M, Memphis and Montana State. Big 12 play kicks off next Wednesday as ASU travels to TCU.
Edited by Henry Smardo, Abigail Beck and Madeline Schmitke.
Reach the reporter at aldeutsc@asu.edu and follow @AlanDeutschend3 on X.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on X.
Alan is a sophomore studying sports journalism. This is his second semester with The State Press. He has also worked at Blaze Radio.
