ASU Volleyball: Devils fall to Colorado in four sets, extend losing streak

The Arizona State Sun Devil volleyball team (13-9, 4-6 Pac-12) started strong, but ultimately fell in four sets to Colorado (25-21, 21-25, 22-25, 20-25), extending their losing streak to four matches.

ASU came out of the gates strong on Sunday afternoon, winning decisively in the first set by a score of 25-21. That early success translated into a 15-8 second-set lead as well. However, the Devils could not hold on, blowing the seven point lead and losing the second set by four points. The Colorado Buffaloes (11-9, 3-6 Pac-12) never looked back, downing the Devils in four sets.

“We didn’t play well, it’s not rocket science,” said head coach Sanja Tomasevic.

Arizona State went winless this weekend in Tempe, extending their home losing streak to two. The Devils are now 1-3 in Pac-12 play when playing at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe.

“It’s mind-blowing to me, I’ve been challenging them to own the home court, to own the home court,” said Tomasevic about their performance at home. “There’s no home court advantage for us honestly.”

Alyse Ford was a bright spot for Arizona State. The senior hitter set a new career high with 29 kills in the match. Ford began her afternoon with nine kills in the first set and racked up 70 total attacks on Sunday afternoon. The next closest Sun Devil, Claire Kovensky, tallied just 30 total attacks.

“It wasn’t our gameplan at first,” said Ford. “I felt someone needed to step up.”

But while Ford has been the go-to player for the Devils as of late, the rest of ASU’s outside hitters have been largely inconsistent. Ivana Jeremic was in a slump coming into Sunday, hitting just .093 in the Sun Devils previous five matches. The junior fared better against the Buffaloes with a .273 hitting percentage in a somewhat limited role. Jeremic had only 22 total attacks, with many opportunities going to Alyse Ford instead.

As the match went on, Ford’s effectiveness started to fade. Ford struggled at the end of the third set, getting blocked twice in a row and ending the match with a service error. After she dominated the first two sets, she drew more attention from Colorado’s defense and finished with 14 attack errors in the match.

“(Colorado) had two people in front of Alyse at all times,” said Tomasevic. “As the match went on, it was harder and harder for Alyse to score because they had two, three people in front of her at all times.”

Nicole Peterson slid into the setter role on Sunday with Shelbie Dobmeier still out with an injury. Since the injury to Dobmeier, the Sun Devils have been rotating setters around. Previously, Callie Jones had been starting at setter with Peterson rotating through both hitter and setter.

Sunday afternoon was different, as Peterson tallied 54 assists while setting for the entire match. However, her play did not impress head coach Sanja Tomasevic, who said Peterson did not make adjustments throughout the match.

“It keeps consistency with the setting,” said Tomasevic on Peterson. “Nicole never adjusted in that situation, she never adjusted to flip the ball to Ivana.”

The Sun Devils will have to wait almost a week for a chance to get back in the win column. The Devils stay in Tempe next weekend, with matchups against No. 16 Oregon (13-7, 6-4 Pac-12) and Oregon State (10-12, 0-10 Pac-12).

“When you play (the top teams), you have nothing to lose. Everyone expects us to lose, so we just go for it,” Tomasevic said. “But matches like this one, we know we are very similar. We can win or we can lose. It’s (going to) be who performs well over time.”