(Photo: Zac Pacleb/WCSN)
After four straight road matches, No. 18 Arizona State won its Pac-12 home opener over the California Bears in four sets (23-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-21).
“One of the things that I hope isn’t lost is just the strength of volleyball in this conference,” ASU head coach Jason Watson said. “Cal, who leaves here 0-6 in conference, is a really, really nice team, and played wonderfully well and challenged us immensely.”
Cal came out efficient as they searched for their first conference win, committing just two attacking errors in the first set. Senior outside hitter Christina Higgins led the Bears with seven kills, and ASU failed to tally a single block in the first set.
“We weren’t ourselves; we weren’t on task,” Watson said. “Not so much offensively but defensively, and so we needed to make sure that we were getting on some tendencies.”
ASU would respond in the second set, however, taking the lead early and never relinquished it.
Sophomore outside hitter Kizzy Willey led Sun Devil attack, racking up six kills in the second set. Willey would finish the match with 16 kills and a career-high 17 digs.
“The blockers, they were doing a great job. Honestly, all night, the ball was just funneled right to me,” Willey said. “I didn’t have to do very much. They were narrowed in on their tendencies so nicely that I just literally stayed there and stuck my arms out.”
The Sun Devils would come out even stronger in the third and fourth sets in all facets of the game, taking early leads in each set and keeping that lead for its entirety.
After putting up 12 kills in two sets, Higgins would only score six more kills in the following two sets. No other Cal attacker posted double-digit kills.
On the offensive end, ASU looked for and found plenty of production from the left pin as Willey and Gardner combined for 37 kills, 35 digs and four blocks.
“I’m so comfortable pushing it out to either (Gardner or Willey),” junior setter Bianca Arellano said. “If it’s not the set that they want, I know that they’re going to put it in a good place and they’re going to manage it.”
ASU hosted a rowdy, energetic crowd of 1,583 on Camper’s Night for their first Pac-12 match in Wells Fargo Arena. There was plenty of noise throughout the game, something Watson felt was key toward the end of the match.
“It’s humbling to have that many people come watch us play volleyball, and we’re very thankful for it,” Watson said.
As nice as the Sun Devils felt to be playing at home, there were some challenges that came with the sizeable crowd.
“In the first game, we were a little bit messy, a little bit kind of frantic and the crowd was great tonight, but there was a factor of I can’t hear my teammates,” Gardner said.
With the win, ASU moves above .500 in conference play, but welcomes in No. 1 Stanford on Sunday at 11 a.m. and will look to be the first team in the country to come out victorious over the Cardinal.
“Them being ranked number one doesn’t really matter to us,” Gardner said. “We’re just going to play and worry about our side of the net.”
Notes:
- Junior middle blocker Whitney Follette practiced this week and warmed up with the team, but she did not play. She is cleared to play, according to Watson.
- Senior setter/defensive specialist Shannan McCready was not on the bench tonight, and there was no information given as to why.
You can reach Zac Pacleb on Twitter @ZacPacleb or via email at zacpacleb@gmail.com
