ASU Volleyball: Sun Devils fall in three sets to UCLA, drop ninth straight

(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)

No. 15 UCLA (7-3) swept Arizona State (1-9) in three sets Sunday afternoon (25-27, 15-25, 21-25) in Tempe. The loss was the ninth in a row for the Sun Devils.

“We just didn’t show up,” head coach Sanja Tomasevic said. “What’s frustrating is that you play what we played in the first set and then we do what we do in the next two sets. It’s something for us to look into.”

The Sun Devils were missing senior middle blocker Megan Beedie for the second straight match due to injury, but freshman middle blocker Claudia Stahlke played well in Beedie’s place in her second start for ASU. Stahlke had four kills and six blocks Sunday.

“It would be nice to have Megan’s experience, but Claudia did her job,” Tomasevic said. “I love that Claudia takes more pride in blocking than hitting. It’s really cool to get a kid who doesn’t get her feelings hurt if we don’t set her enough balls.”

Freshman outside hitter Marta Levinska led the Sun Devils with 13 kills and also had four blocks and seven digs. This is her seventh match this season reaching double figures in kills. She had a .364 hitting percentage as well on Sunday.

Though Mac May of the Bruins hit .250 in contrast to her .485 on Friday, she still led the Bruins and all hitters in the match in kills with 17 on 36 swings. The Bruins also had some other hitters perform well with Iman Ndiaye being the other Bruin in double digits with kills, scoring points on 12 of her 17 swings. Sabrina Smith had a .800 hitting percentage in the match from eight kills with no errors.

The first set for the Sun Devils went to extra points after kills from Levinska and fellow outside hitter sophomore Iman Isanovic tied the set at 24-24. A challenge at the end of the set that initially favored the Bruins ended up reversed in favor of the Sun Devils but they would go on to lose the set, 25-27.

The Bruins took an early lead in the second set, and back-to-back kills from freshman outside hitter Regan Tinkle brought the Sun Devils within two. But a 5-0 run that included three aces in a row from May found the Sun Devils on the wrong side of the second set. Tomasevic said that the team letting previous plays affect them won’t just have an effect on the next play but for plays after that.

“You cannot dwell on anything that happened in the last play, you have to move on,” Tomasevic said. “That short term memory has to kick in because you have to perform in your next play. If you let that previous play affect you, it is going to spiral.”

In the third set, Tomasevic made a libero change from sophomore Annika Larson to sophomore Madi Berkholz, which was her first time taking that role in her career. Berkholz was 100 percent on serve receive, going 5 for 5.

Another factor in the third set was defense, with ASU finishing with 11 blocks in the match compared to UCLA’s three. After trailing early, the Sun Devils found themselves with one after having back-to-back blocks. Later on in the set, Levinska and Stahlke had a block assist together that put ASU within three of the Bruins. However, a kill by UCLA would seal the victory and the series sweep for them over the Sun Devils, 21-25.

“We just have to commit to ending the game because there have been numerous times where we are so close,” Levinska said of finishing close sets. “We have to believe in ourselves and stay concentrated on every rally.”

The Sun Devils’ next matchup is against the other Los Angeles school in the Pac-12, USC. Both matches will be played at the Galen Center at USC on Friday Feb. 26 and Sunday Feb. 28.