Following two losses on the road to the mountain schools, Arizona State (13-11, 5-8 Pac-12) fell to No. 5 Stanford (17-4, 11-2 Pac-12) at home in a quick three-set match (16-25, 23-25,10-25).
“Everybody is already writing an ‘L’ next to your team’s name, so why not just go out there and play hard like you never have before,” said head coach Sanja Tomasevic following the loss.
As most predicated, the Sun Devils struggled to gain momentum and never took the lead in Thursday’s match against the Cardinal. Thirteen of Arizona State’s points were attributed to Stanford’s errors in the second set alone.
“They missed eight serves and had five hitting errors,” Tomasevic said, “So they gave us 13 out of 23 points in that set.”
Stanford’s senior middle blocker Madeleine Gates led both teams in kills (13) and hit an impressive .323 clip.
Freshmen outside hitter Iman Isanovic had a career-high match against the Cardinal earlier in the season, but played sparingly during tonight’s match, totaling six kills.
Despite the loss, the Sun Devils showcased their resilience in multiple thrilling rallies throughout all three sets, especially during the second set.
Junior outside hitter Claire Kovensky attempted to aid the comeback effort for the Sun Devils, ending the match with five kills. Arizona State hit an extremely low .078, a dramatic decrease from its .317 the last time it went up against Stanford.
“Before you get better you get worse,” Tomasevic said. “That’s how it works. And we’ve gotten worse and now it’s time to get better.”
Explosive blocks by sophomore middle blocker Avital Jaloba and junior outside hitter Andrea Mitrovic allowed the Sun Devils to somewhat pose a challenge to their ranked opponent, but not everyone on the roster played to their full capacity.
“I believe that every person on this team is capable of doing their job. It’s just a choice,” senior libero Courtney Leffel said. “Every single person has to decide to make a change.”
Arizona State will host its second match of the week against No. 20 California (19-4, 9-4 Pac-12) in Tempe on Sunday at 12 p.m. The match can be seen on Pac-12 Networks.
