(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)
Arizona State (1-8) came up short in the first match with its third ranked matchup of the season, falling to No. 15 UCLA (6-3) in four sets (25-22, 25-17, 25-22, 25-22) Friday in Tempe.
“I thought there were some moments today where we looked better than in the past couple weekends,” head coach Sanja Tomasevic said. “We just have injuries, we lost a couple players so this is literally the team of freshman and sophomores right now just trying to get out there and get some Pac-12 experience.”
The Sun Devils were missing three key players against the Bruins: junior libero Paige Denton, junior middle blocker Megan Beedie and sophomore setter Shannon Shields.
Coming off a season-high 11 kills against Oregon State last weekend, sophomore middle blocker Kennedi Boyd stepped up against the Bruins with the usual starter Beedie not playing. Boyd put up eight kills and four blocks.
Freshman middle blocker Claudia Stahlke also contributed to the Sun Devil effort, receiving her first collegiate blocks and kills, with seven and three respectively.
“My team helped me out a lot,” Stahlke said. “I wanted to execute that game plan that coach Sanja had for us and I think that helped me get my mind right and have confidence in myself when the game was really close.”
Sophomore outside hitter Iman Isanovic racked up 14 kills and one block. Isanovic has had double-digit kills in every match this season, a remarkable level of consistency for one of the young Sun Devils.
“For us, trying to find that second outside hitter has been a struggle this year with the departure of (Andrea Mitrovic) and (Claire Kovensky),” Tomasevic said.
Freshman outside hitter Reagan Tinkle had two kills and six digs. Tomasevic said that “we’ll see a little bit more of Reagan” in Sunday’s match.
Service errors were a prominent issue for both teams — the Sun Devils missed 13 serves and the Bruins missed 20.
The Sun Devil defense struggled to contain UCLA outside hitter Mac May, who hit at a .485 hitting percentage and had 19 kills. May was named the 2019 Pac-12 Player of the Year.
“When we play UCLA we know Mac May is going to be the girl,” Tomasevic said. “We got to get to her. We can’t let her go off like that when we know the ball is going to her.”
Sophomore libero Annika Larson had three assists and 12 digs.
The Bruins’ top three hitters May, Emily Ryan and Iman Ndiaye hit at .485, .429 and .500 respectively — while the Sun Devils’ top three hitters Levinksa, Boyd and Isanovic hit at .171, .471 and .196 respectively.
Freshman setter Ella Snyder had 34 assists on the night.
After an unsuccessful challenge by the Sun Devils, the Bruins increased their scoring run to eight during the second set. Arizona State could not rally and lost the set.
UCLA’s team hitting percentage increased as the match went on, starting at .349 in the first set and reaching .392 in the second set. On the other hand, Arizona State’s team hitting percentage decreased from .172 in the first set to .119 in the second set.
After dropping the first two sets, the Sun Devils were able to extend the match to a fourth set by slowing down the Bruins offense in the third set. UCLA had a team hitting percentage of .071 as the Sun Devil defense stepped up for a short stretch of play.
“It’s been a tough night, but I’m proud of the way that we fought,” said Tomasevic following the eighth consecutive loss of the ASU season.
UCLA dominated the fourth set, maintaining a lead the entire time to wrap up the match and avoid a fifth set effort by Arizona State.
“I want to be a strong contributor blocking at the net for Sunday’s game,” Stahlke said.
The Sun Devils will host the Bruins for the second match of the two-match series on Sunday at 1 p.m. The match can be seen on the ASU Live Stream.
