ASU Volleyball: Sun Devils search for offensive tempo and efficiency

(Photo: Zac Pacleb/WCSN)

With seven matches remaining in the regular season, No. 20 Arizona State suffered its first home loss to No. 3 Washington, and while the Sun Devils were more successful in finding a good tempo, the efficiency was not there.

The Sun Devils offense came out of the gates with some pop in the first set. Initially, ASU had four kills on 12 swings with one error for an early percentage of .250, but the offense could not keep up the pace throughout the set. Essentially, the Washington’s defense was too hard to overcome. In the first set, Washington had 16 digs and two blocks.

The Huskies were led defensively by senior libero Cassie Strickland, who would end the match with  18 digs.

A bright spot for ASU’s offense was a bit of a resurgence from junior outside hitter Cassidy Pickrell, who finished the first set with five kills on 10 attempts with one error for a hitting percentage of .400. This was vastly different than the Sun Devils team hitting percentage of .088 accompanied with six errors.

The Sun Devils themselves showed flashes of their defensive prowess holding an efficient Huskies offense to a hitting percentage of .235, and the Sun Devils dug the ball well totaling 12 digs, led by sophomore Halle Harker who had four.

“I felt like tonight, we ran our offense really well,” Pickrell said. “We have been preparing to run our offense quicker than we have been. I felt comfortable with it, and (senior setter Bianca Arellano) was doing a great job connecting with me.”

The second set did not go much better for the Sun Devils offensively as early on they were only able to muster 10 kills on 37 attempts with five errors.

ASU was able to remain tight to the Huskies, though, mainly because the Sun Devils front row put up a strong block against Washington, holding them to a .229 hitting percentage, and forcing five early errors. Senior middle blocker Whitney Follette even had a nice solo block up front.

The Sun Devils also showed fire that had been missing lately, heavily relying on their defense to pick up for a fiery, but inconsistent, offense. Junior opposite BreElle Bailey came alive in the second set, tallying three kills on eight attempts.

“I would have like to have seen BreElle a little bit more involved,” ASU head coach Jason Watson said. “There was some times when we could have set BreElle a little bit more.”

Even though ASU lost the set, the signs of tenacity and defensive intensity were good signs.

The third set brought about the same results offensively for the Sun Devils as they tallied six kills on 33 attempts with five errors. Bailey and Pickrell continued to be the leaders on offense combining for six kills on 19 swings.

An interesting statistic was the gap between Washington’s assist totals versus ASU’s assist totals. Running a 5-1, Huskies setter senior Katy Beals had 20 assists and sophomore Bailey Tanner had 16 assits, whereas ASU setters Arellano and freshman Kylie Pickrell combined for 24 assists on the night.

If ASU can find some sort of balance between the three players that provides maximum efficiency, it would greatly improve an offense that has good firepower.

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