(Photo: Paige Cook/WCSN)
Spooky season is indeed upon us. Coming into Sunday afternoon’s matchup against the No. 15 Stanford Cardinal (12-8, 7-5 Pac-12), the red-hot Arizona State Sun Devils (13-10, 6-6 Pac-12) blazed by its previous four opponents, two of which held national rankings and another of which received votes. ASU’s four-set victory (22-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-17) evened out its conference record, which had sported just one victory and six defeats a couple weeks ago.
The Halloween upset redeemed Arizona State’s losing efforts against Stanford nearly one month ago and marks just the seventh time such a win has been registered against the Cardinal. Even with the recent success of the team, head coach Sanja Tomasevic and junior libero Annika Larson explained these latest performances remain far from their ceiling potential.
“We’re super happy and celebrating the win, but the vibe in the huddle was like, ‘We’re better than where we’re playing right now,’” Tomasevic told reporters following the fifth straight Sun Devil win. Larson added: “We’re really trying to get one percent better every day.”
With all of the momentum and sheer confidence the Devils possessed coming into today, the situation was quite different for the opposition. Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly’s group had suffered a second consecutive sweep Friday against the Arizona Wildcats, a team under .500 in conference play at the time. However, their struggle against the Wildcats wasn’t without cause, missing three key starters in freshman setter Kami Miner, junior opposite Kendall Kipp, and sophomore defensive specialist Alex Lougeay. Plagued by injury, these impact players were not ready to return against Arizona State, forcing the remainder of Stanford’s roster to work through a second straight match shorthanded.
After the match, Tomasevic acknowledged this chink in the Cardinal armor, but said it actually took her team some time to adjust to Hambley’s makeshift rotations.
“I thought it was a difficult, weird game to play because we knew they were not in their best lineup,” Tomasevic said. “It took us awhile to get going in a good beat.”
The wounded Cardinal team came out swinging. In addition to early mistakes from ASU, the efforts of redshirt sophomore outside Caitie Baird boosted Stanford to an early 7-2 lead. With four kills, Baird was putting in work at the left near-side pins, using the Sun Devil block for two kills and maneuvering around it for two more.
From this point, Stanford would go on to lead by as many as six points before the Sun Devils started to creep back into close contention. Fueled by the offensive efforts of their usual suspects, Arizona State would climb to attain a one-point lead, 18-17. Sophomore middle blocker Claire Jeter and freshman outside hitter Geli Cyr turned in two kills apiece, but Iman Isanovic’s five kills were the driving force behind the Sun Devils’ temporary comeback in the opening frame.
Isanovic’s early success came at the left far-side pins, alternating between attacks on the Stanford block and the surrounding defenders. In back-to-back kills to tie and take the lead, Isanovic flexed her versatility, smashing one directly off the awaiting arms of freshman defensive specialist Taylor Beaven and the other into the vertical arms of a Stanford double.
Unfortunately for Isanovic and ASU, Stanford would go on to grab 8 of the last 12 points, taking the early lead 1-0. The set victory would be highlighted by the tremendous 9-kill performance of Baird, further backed by a rather surprising source of offense in the play of sophomore libero Elena Oglivie. Chipping in five first-set kills and 15 for the match, Oglivie did as much as Stanford could ask for to help fill Kipp’s void. Though the Hawaiian native was quite the offensive force throughout her high school years, she was recruited to play libero with Stanford, therefore only registering three total kills leading into Sunday’s match.
Despite losing the first set, the Sun Devils dominated the remaining frames, and none of them finished particularly close.
The second frame was shaping up to be a neck-and-neck battle throughout. Until the score reached a tie of 18-18, the largest lead for both sides was capped at two points. But once that marker was reached, the Devils busted out to a massive run, securing the second set and evening the match at one apiece.
Again, the main players fueling this conclusion were Isanovic, Jeter, and Cyr. Warmed up by an errant Stanford serve, these three each contributed two points to the final six needed on the road to 25. At middle, Jeter walled up a hit from Baird. One point. At the far-side pins, Isanovic split right through the Stanford block. Two points. From the back row, Cyr connected with sophomore setter Ella Snyder for a heavy swing. Three points. Following formation violations earlier in the match, ASU found themselves on the rewarding end of the same penalty with Jeter receiving the pseudo-ace. Four points. From the far-side pins, Isanovic proceeded to fold the Stanford block once more. Five points. Snyder found Cyr in the back row for a second time, rising up and nailing the ball into the second set coffin. Six points. Arriving at 25, Arizona State took the set and refused to look back, charging forward to a redemptive four-set triumph over the Stanford Cardinal.
Dishing on this victory and the slate of success that preceded it, Tomasevic broke down her biggest keys to their conference turnaround.
“We’re finding ways to get more kills, and I think that our serve receive is getting better with Geli on the court being one of our primary passers and being really good at it,” the Sun Devil head coach explained. “When you add an outside hitter that can pass, it keeps us stable there as well as getting her kills.”
With Sunday’s 12 kills against Stanford, Cyr now has produced double-digit kills in each of ASU’s past five wins, also boasting an average of 12.4 kills across her team’s streak; Cyr managed just one double-digit match and around 3.5 kills through Arizona State’s first seven. According to Tomasevic, Cyr’s rehab and recovery from a shoulder injury last December was the major obstacle keeping the freshman standout from making her mark earlier in conference play. Cyr has proven herself to be another dangerous weapon in an ASU offense already laced with talent, and such a commodity seems to be the missing piece Tomasevic has needed.
This upcoming week Arizona State heads on the road to face Washington and Washington State, two more nationally ranked opponents that bested the Sun Devils earlier this year.
