(Tempe, AZ) The 7th ranked Sun Devils head into today’s match back on the winning track after a hiccup to UC – Davis on Thursday night losing in four sets. They righted the ship yesterday against old PAC-12 foe the Oregon Ducks 3-1.
Enter the San Diego Toreros (3-3) who are coming off a win in Tempe against UC – Davis, the same team that upset ASU. Today’s match was the “Forks Up for Dolly.’
Set One
San Diego started with a service ace and then took 3-1 lead before Una Vajagic broke the string with a cross-court kill 3-2.
Toreros came back with 5-2 run to go up 8-4, but a Noemi Glover kill and service ace by Antonina Serafinowska to draw within one 8-7.
Both teams went back and forth until Elle Mottola tied it at 10-10 with her spike. From there, the Sun Devils had a 5-1 run of their own to lead 15-11.
Two points later, San Diego had seen enough calling a timeout down 17-11 and not didn’t want to fall further behind.
Arizona State out of the timeout, continued their assault ultimately forcing USD Coach Jennifer Petrie to call another timout down 20-13.
San Diego couldn’t stand up to continuous onslaught of Devil kills shots and fell 25-15.
Set Two
ASU stayed hot as they took a 4-0 lead off three errors and another service ace.
The Toreros kept playing from behind and the first third of the match had only scored 3 points off two kills and an attack error and fond themselves down 8-3.
Glover’s two exclamation points on back to back kills put the Sun Devils up 10-5.
Reeece Bates came back for San Diego with two timely service aces to draw USD within one points 10-9 and a timeout by Coach JJ Van Niel.
San Diego battled back with a tying kill from Nemo Beach 12-12.
The Devils went on a 3-0 run to go back up 15-12 and a San Diego timeout. San Diego didn’t quit as two big digs on defense, a kill and a service ace tied it up at 17-17.
That was followed by a Torero kill by Kiersten Barton to give San Diego the lead 18-17 and a Sun Devil timeout.
USD persevered in their strong comeback and ran off another 3 points following the timeout to take a 20-17 lead with a 6-0 run.
A point off of a kill and an attack error briefly tied it up 20-20. The next play, Brewer had a kill that appeared to be out but was counted as a Torero point, JJ Van Niel challenged the call and it was overturned.
Arizona State not flustered by the Toreros’ comeback and lead scored off two attack errors to tie it back up at 23-23.
On Set Point, a service error by San Diego’s Brewer appeared to be just out, but was reversed on appeal to a service ace to give the Toreros the win 25-23 in a big comeback to tie the match at 1-1.
Set Three
Both teams with a set win went right after each other and the Devils took an early 4-2 lead. San Diego still tried to solve the Sun Devils’ height advantage lost ground on some indecision on offense and allowed ASU to take a commanding 12-4 lead.
Eight of the next twelve points went to the Devils as they pulled away to a 20-8 lead. Six kills and two attack errors highlighted the run.
At 22-9 Ella Lewis had a service ace and San Diego had no answer followed by Glover’s monster kill put it at set point. A kill shot by Serafinowska that was mishandled by the Torero defense gave the Sun Devils the set with a statement 25-11. ASU led 2-1 in sets.
So far, ASU had a 36-21 advantage in kills and a 11-5 lead in blocks.
Set Four
In a set that ASU didn’t want to lose to extend the match to a fifth set, found themselves with tied at 3-3 early.
Any crack in the other’s game could be difficult to come back.
Arizona State maintained a slim lead 8-6 as the Toreros would not fold.
Point off a kill shot by Una Vajagic moved the lead back up to three 9-6. An attack error off USD’s Beach was challenged by the Toreros bench and overturned to adjust the score to 9-7.
Glover set things back in the Devils favor with another powerful kill shot, 10-7 as they traded the next four points 2-2 for a 12-9 lead.
A 3-1 spirt for Arizona State forced a San Diego timeout and down 15-10.
After the timeout the Sun Devils went on a 4-0 run to set themselves up for the stretch run up 19-10 and another USD timeout.
Point #21 came off a perfectly placed dink kill Burgess and that was the beginning of the end as the Devils
The final shot attempt sailed wide and ASU came away with the win 3-1 sets.
Wrap Up
The big story of the match was the Sun Devils serving. Piper Rama had 5 service aces and Isabella Costantini added 3 aces.
After allowing San Diego to comeback and win the second set to tie the match, Coach Van Niel made both strategic and mental adjustments, the team responded with in the third set with a 100% side out (12-12) and a match high 16 kills as the Sun Devils led from start to finish. The fourth and final set, Arizona State with a wave of momentum from the decisive third set breezed to a 25-14 win to seal the match.
Up next, the team hits the road again after going 2-1 at home in the Snyder-Park Classic. Stanford, Cal-Poly, West Virginia and Cincinnati will take the Devils on an extended road trip.
The next home game is October 4th against Big XII foe Iowa State. Tonight’s attendance was 3,552.
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