(Photo: Blake Benard/WCSN)
The No. 6 Arizona State Sun Devils continued Pac-12 play on Sunday against the California Golden Bears. The Sun Devils were able to stay undefeated on the season and easily took care of the Bears in three sets, 25-17, 25-19, 25-19.
At the beginning of the third set, it was evident that the Sun Devils game plan was to feed the ball to Gardner, who was eight kills away from breaking the all-time kills record at ASU. Quickly, ASU jumped out to a 9-3 with Gardner leading the way. She had five kills through ASU’s first 10 points. The Bears took their first timeout when the Sun Devils moved out to a 13-6 lead. Cal was able to inch their way closer though as they closed the gap down to 16-14. It was a special point when Macey Gardner pushed the lead out to 22-18, as in that kill Gardner moved into first all-time on the ASU kills list with 1,872.
“If anything we needed to stop thinking about it (the record),” senior setter Bianca Arellano said. “We needed to stop trying to force it, and let it happen. We calmed down and… it happened”
The Sun Devils jumped out to an early lead over the Bears when they pulled ahead 11-6, and the Bears were forced to call their first timeout. ASU shot out to a quick start, tallying eight kills within its first 15 attempts, hitting at a clip of .467. Cal was able to move a little closer when they brought the gap down to three, trailing 15-12. ASU was able to put its foot down though and forced the Bears to call their second timeout when the lead was extended to 19-12. The timeout did not matter; however, as the Sun Devils capped off the set by a score of 25-17.
The first set showed the Sun Devils blocking prowess as they were able to stuff the Bears a total of five times. ASU was able to hold Cal to a hitting percentage of .059 in the first set, and forced the Bears to make nine hitting errors.
“We’re spending time on that (blocking),” ASU head coach Jason Watson said. “We’re certainly spending some time on that in our scouting. We certainly want to be disciplined.”
The second set opened up a bit more contested as Cal was able to move out in front of ASU with an 8-6 lead. The Sun Devils quickly responded and took over the lead 12-9 forcing the Bears to call their first timeout. It didn’t take much longer for the Bears to take their second timeout when the Sun Devils pushed their lead to 15-9. The teams continued to trade points and rallies here and there, and the Bears moved a little closer, only down 21-18. The Sun Devils eventually prevailed going into the break winning the set 25-19.
The storyline of the day was going to be if senior outside hitter Macey Gardner was able to reach ASU’s all-time kill record. She needed 13 kills on the day to pass it; however, through the first two sets the California Bears held Gardner in check as she only had 5, hitting with a percentage of .118.
If the Bears wanted to get back into the match they would have to rely heavily on the hitting of sophomore outside hitter Christine Alftin. Through the first two sets Alftin had five kills on 12 attempts with only one error, giving her a hitting percentage of .333.
ASU would take the third set by a score of 25-19. Finishing the set on a huge block up front by none other than Gardner.
ASU’s next match will be against No. 5 Washington on Friday at 7pm.
Now that Gardner has broken the school record, the next milestone that she could break is eclipsing 2,000 career kills. She would become only the seventh Pac-12 player to ever accomplish this.
“It’s awesome,” Gardner said. “The whole game I’m trying not to think about it (the record), and I’m trying not to think about the girls thinking about it. It’s really cool and humbling. It’s a great blessing.”
If you have any questions or comments your can reach Jacob Franklin on Twitter @Jacob_Franklin4.
