(Photo via Brendan O’Keeffe/WCSN)
Coming off a thrilling win in five sets against No. 15 Washington, Arizona State women’s volleyball traveled down to Pullman, Wash. to round out the first half of Pac-12 Conference play, hoping to get back to .500 in Sunday’s match against Washington State.
The Cougars, riding their own high from their five-set win over Arizona, proved to be too much for the Sun Devils to handle. Led by 14 kills from fifth-year outside hitter Laura Jensen and 13 kills from senior outside hitter Pia Timmer, WSU swept ASU (25-16, 25-22, 25-21) to preserve its undefeated home record.
After the long match on Friday and traveling the day after, the Sun Devils almost looked to be sleepwalking on Sunday. The Cougars jumped out to a 6-2 lead and didn’t look back from there. Timmer recorded six of her 13 kills in the first set to set the tone.
WSU’s commanding attacks forced the Sun Devils to use both of their timeouts early, but neither seemed to get them back on track, as they dropped the set 16-25.
ASU was sorely missing junior middle blocker Claire Jeter, allowing Cougar pin hitters to have a field day. WSU hit an impressive .379 with just five attack errors compared to the Sun Devils’ .185 hitting percentage and 21 total attack errors.
The second set saw ASU come out with more of a fight to match the Cougars. With 11 ties and four lead changes throughout, neither team could quite pull away until late.
Freshman outside hitter Leah Miller – an emerging star for ASU – led the way with five kills in the set, but it was a service ace from senior setter Shannon Shields that forced WSU to take its first timeout of the game at 19-18. From there, the Cougars went on a 4-1 scoring run to stifle the Sun Devils and take the second set.
ASU then picked the wrong time for poor execution in the third set, getting thrown off course early with four consecutive service errors and a yellow card given to head coach Sanja Tomasevic after being seen arguing with a referee. Five of the Sun Devils’ nine service errors came in the third set, proving costly to the final outcome.
The Cougars’ final frame was highlighted by a 9-0 scoring run in which senior middle blocker Magda Jehlarova surpassed Sarah Silvernail for the third-most solo blocks in program history.
The Sun Devils made their own 7-0 run near the end, but the comeback attempt was too little too late. Even after a challenge from Tomasevic brought ASU within striking distance at 21-23, the Sun Devils were unable to capitalize. Timmer punctuated her tremendous performance with a kill to give WSU match point, and then a heavy-handed block to seal the victory.
The Sun Devils now fall to 10-12 overall and 4-6 in the Pac-12, and will travel back to Tempe next week to face both Oregon schools.
