(Photo: Courtney Pedroza/WCSN)
The No. 10 Arizona State Sun Devils began their Southern California road trip with a four-set loss to the No. 1 team in the country the USC Women of Troy 15-25, 21-25, 25-23, and 23-25.
It was a match which saw ASU start a different lineup due to the absence of senior outside hitter Macey Gardner. ASU head coach Jason Watson started senior middle blocker Andi Lowrance and freshman outside hitter Lexi MacLean. It was MacLean’s first career start.
The third set was close through the first 15 points with USC leading 8-7. ASU went on a quick 4-0 run and took its largest lead of the game at 11-8. The Women of Troy continued to battle and came within one, but ASU kept the pressure on forcing USC head coach Mick Haley to call his first timeout of the match. USC tied the set at 21 but ASU stayed composed winning the set 25-23.
USC kept a comfortable lead throughout the first set, pacing themselves and holding a sizable lead early on. USC stretched the lead out to double-digits and took the first set convincingly 25-15.
In the set, redshirt senior Samantha Bricio shined for the Women of Troy. She had two aces in the set to go along with two kills. In addition, Brittany Abercrombie lead the team in kills in the first set recording 4 kills.
In the second set, ASU was able to hang closer throughout the first half of the second set closing the gap to only one. However, USC maintained their lead as the closed out the second set 25-21.
Through two sets, USC had an incredibly efficient offensive attack as it had four hitters hit over .300 and hit .353 as a team. Bricio tallied seven kills in the set to get her to nine in the match, and freshman outside hitter Alyse Ford had seven kills of her own and hit .500 through the first two sets.
In the fourth the set ASU quickly found themselves down 7-1 but rallied back to bring the deficit to three, down 11-8. USC appeared to have the match in hand but ASU battled back. With their backs against the wall, ASU reeled off six straight points to bring the score to 24-23. On the eighth match point, USC ended the match on a block from freshman setter Baylee Johnson.
Bricio, Ford, and Abercrombie lead the Women of Troy as they finished with 24, 13 and 11 kills respectively.
Senior middle blocker Whitney Follette leader for the Sun Devils as she paced the team in kills with 13. Cassidy Pickrell also tallied nine kills of her own.
With the loss ASU falls to 15-3 on the year and 4-3 in Pac-12 play. Its next match will be against the other Southern California team as it takes on the No. 12 UCLA Bruins on Sunday and can be seen on the Pac-12 Networks.
