(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
The Arizona State (9-3) volleyball program, which hadn’t won a set against Arizona (10-3) since 2017, swept the Wildcats in a three set match Thursday night (25-20, 25-16, 25-19).
Early in the first set, the Sun Devils struggled to seal multiple blocks by the Wildcats. Their defense was held together by junior outside hitter, Claire Kovensky, who stepped up and completed four digs. Kovensky finished with a match-leading 14 kills in the ASU win.
“It’s been super fun to watch her play just not not only while she’s hitting, but she’s a lot more, you know, dialed in [with] services and blocking and defense,” Arizona State head coach Sanja Tomasevic said following the win.
The Wildcats’ right side hitter, Elizabeth Shelton, posed a serious challenge to the Sun Devils, with five kills and a .571 hitting percentage by the end of the first set. But the Sun Devils were expecting that.
“I mean, we knew that [Shelton] was going to get her kills,” Tomasevic said. “You know, she’s an outstanding, physical kid.”
Arizona State’s pin hitters gained some momentum throughout the first set as well. Seniors Jada Burse and Ivana Jeremic helped move the offense along during the set, earning five straight points for the team and ultimately winning the set.
The second set kicked off with an early lead by Arizona State and a powerful performance by Kovensky, who was all over the court and worked her way up the leaderboard, with nine kills by the end of the set. The Sun Devils had a 10-point lead twice (18-8, 24-14) over the Wildcats during this set. Even though their offense had played a great two sets, the Sun Devils still struggled with stopping their opponents’ three service aces.
Arizona State’s outside hitters played to their full potential against their rivals, ending the match with a combined total of 45 kills. Jeremic had a great conference opener with 11 kills and a career-high .600 hitting percentage, despite being a passing target the whole match.
“I guess I wasn’t thinking about hitting as much which released the pressure of me on me,” Jeremic said.
Senior setter Callie Jones had each one of her outside hitters to count on during all three sets and ended the match with 18 assists.
“I think everybody wants the ball, which is awesome,” Jones said. “It is incredible to have hitters I can tell you as a setter to have… every single one of them in front like ‘give me the ball.’”
Arizona State came into the third set with another early lead. Despite the fact that outside hitters Jeremic and Kovensky continued to play exceptionally, the Sun Devils momentum noticeably slowed down, which made for a closer and more competitive set. The Wildcats missed four serves in a row and ended the match with 12 service errors. During this set the Sun Devils maintained control of the offense with very little errors, ending the match with only 4 service errors and 0 blocking errors.
With one win under their belt in conference play, Arizona State is headed to Los Angeles to play UCLA (6-4) on Sunday, Sept. 29 at 12 p.m. The match can be seen on Pac-12 Networks.
