(Salt Lake City, UT) For the 10th win in a row, No. 13 Sun Devil Volleyball got its 15th sweep at No. 22 Utah (25-19, 25-19, 25-18) in the Huntsman Center on Saturday afternoon.
Notable Stats
Arizona State (22-2, 10-1 Big 12) swept Utah (15-7, 7-4 Big 12), completing the season sweep over the Utes and getting the fifth win in a row over them. The Sun Devils got the season sweep over both schools in Utah this season.
ASU improves to 4-2 against ranked teams this year. Additionally, ASU got its 15th sweep of the year, tied for the second most in a single season in program history.
JJ Van Niel got his 50th win as a head coach against the school where he got his collegiate coaching start. He is 50-9 in his two seasons at Arizona State, the fastest Sun Devil head coach to 50 in team history.
ASU got its 10th win in a row, which is the fourth-longest win streak in team history and the second double-digit win streak under Van Niel (14 in a row in 2023).
The Sun Devils got their 10th conference win, the 11th time in program history earning double-digit conference wins. It is the second year in a row doing so, just the second time this century.
The team had 11 blocks in the win, the most in a sweep this season and the third-most overall. Graduate middle blocker Claire Jeter had a game-high six to lead the team to go with her seven kills. She is the fifth Sun Devil in team history to get over 400 career blocks at Arizona State, which she achieved this week.
Graduate setter Argentina Ung notched her ninth double-double of the season with 27 assists and 12 digs. She also had two aces, four blocks and five kills.
The offense was spread out in the victory, all six players with kills earning at least five. The kill leader was graduate outside hitter Shania Cromartie with nine kills, adding seven digs and three blocks as well.
Leading the back court defense was graduate libero Mary Shroll with 16 digs to lead all players. She has had double-digit digs in all but one match this year.
Senior outside hitter Geli Cyr had eight kills and seven digs in the win. Right behind her were Jeter and graduate pin hitter Roberta Rabelo with seven kills each.
Set One: ASU 25, Utah 19
Utah started off the first set hot and took a 9-6 lead over ASU. The Sun Devils were able to persevere and put together a 6-0 scoring run with Jillian Neal serving, leading 15-13 heading into the media timeout. Ung found Cyr for the clean kill to give ASU a 21-16 lead over Utah. A service ace by Neal closed out the first set for the Sun Devils with a 25-19 win over the Utes.
Set Two: ASU 25, Utah 19
The Sun Devils shot out the gate with the help of back-to-back service aces from Ung, leading 5-1 over the Utes. A kill set up for Cromartie gave ASU a 11-9 lead over Utah. After battling back-and-forth, Rabelo was able to score a service ace to give the Sun Devils a comfortable 19-16 lead over the Utes. Following that momentum, ASU completed a 5-0 scoring run with the help of a kill by Ung and Savannah Kjolhede to take the second set, 25-19.
Set Three: ASU 25, Utah 18
ASU started off hot on a 5-1 scoring run with the help of a kill by Cromartie, forcing Utah to take their first timeout of the set to regroup. Following the timeout, Jeter was able to swat two kills to set up the Sun Devils with a 12-7 lead over the Utes. Jeter continued to roll with blocks all over the court, giving ASU a comfortable 21-15 lead heading into the final points of the match. With the help of kills by Kjolhede and Cyr, the Sun Devils were able to sweep the Utes with a 25-18 third set victory.
Up Next
Arizona State will be back home next week for a third-straight ranked matchup, bringing in No. 8 Kansas on Wednesday in Mullett Arena with major conference standings ramifications. ASU will also host Kansas State on Friday in Desert Financial Arena.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Kimberlie Haner
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