(Photo: Trey Lanthier/WCSN)
It was a tough match for ASU, as they were defeated by the Colorado Buffaloes with in five sets (19-25, 27-29, 23-25, 25-15, 11-15) to finish their weekend 1-1 again.
The fifth set was controlled by the Buffs as they took an early 6-1 lead. ASU fought back and shrunk the point deficit to three points but could not find an answer to stop a Colorado team that had all of the momentum.
The Sun Devils got off to a slow start early as the Buffs led 11-2 in the first set. The defense stopped the Buffalo’s offense as they weren’t able to position their digs in a spot comfortable enough for junior setter Bianca Arellano. Offensively, the Sun Devils were nowhere to be found as junior outside hitter Macey Gardner had only two kills and three errors. Junior middle blocker Mercedes Binns had the most kills in the first set with three.
“We aren’t the staff that believes in momentum,” ASU head coach Jason Watson said. “We have to ask ourselves, what is it that we can do to make our athletes better prepared for the second game of a series? And we don’t know the answer, but we are going to do an enormous amount of soul searching.”
The second set started to look better for the Sun Devils as they kept a short lead for most of the set, but was quickly turned around for Colorado as sophomore defensive specialist Gwen Herring went on a five point service run to help her team take the lead. After the run, it was back and forth as both teams would take the lead every other point. Colorado eventually took the second set 29-27 and led two sets to none.
ASU’s star junior middle blocker Whitney Follette struggled as she was taken out after the second set with only one kill out of nine attempts. After not seeing the court since Follette’s return, junior Andi Lowrance took over. Freshman Madison McDaniel was also subbed in for sophomore opposite hitter BreElle Bailey and started a spark for the Sun Devils and with the help of Lowrance, they combined for two kills and five blocks to take set three and four.
“They demand the ball,” Arellano said. “They are going to contribute and go for it, and that makes me comfortable going to them even when they are cold off the bench.”
Even with Gardner’s 22 kills, Colorado’s front row was on fire at the net as they nearly got a touch on every single one of ASU’s attacks and ended the day with a total of 24 blocks for points.
“Offensively they were better than us, defensively they were better than us, and they served better than us. I was really disappointed in games one and two with our composure.” Watson added.
The Sun Devil’s are now 6-6 in conference play and will look to bounce back next weekend. They will see some familiar faces as they travel up to northern California to play No. 1 Stanford and the University of California.
