(Photo: Brendan O’Keefe/WCSN)
Arizona State took on the Washington State Cougars Thursday night. The Sun Devils fell in a non-competitive three sets (20-25, 18-25, 14-25) to the Cougars. Unable to get in any offensive rhythm, the Sun Devils were playing from behind for most of the match.
“We were just not good tonight, that was probably the worst we have played in a year or so and they were really good,” head coach Sanja Tomasevic said following Arizona State’s fourth loss in conference play in 2021. “They were really good in serve receive. We let them in the first set get in a nice little rhythm of serve receive with our easy serves. And then later on when we even hit hard serves, they were already feeling good about their serve receive. They really didn’t struggle. When that team is in rhythm, they are really hard to stop. Their middles are really good. I’m disappointed in the way we played.”
In the opening set both teams were able to show consistent defense and not allow anyone to go on a momentum changing scoring run. There were five ties during the set, but the Cougars were able to pull away late behind the efforts of Katy Ryan and Magda Jehlarova, tied with four kills apiece. The Cougars took the first set, 25-20.
Washington State went up early in the second set with a 6-2 lead, controlling the set from start to finish. The Sun Devils quickly got back-to-back points before the Cougars were able to stop the run and go on one of their own. After falling behind 11-5, Tomasevic called her first timeout of the set. The Sun Devils were able to rally multiple times following and bring the score within three, at 16-13. The Cougars were able to go on scoring runs of their own and expanding the lead to as big as 7 before eventually taking the set 25-18.
After falling down two sets to none the Sun Devils had to battle, keeping it tied at 4-4, before a 5-0 scoring run by the Cougars led to a timeout. Following the timeout, both teams continued to go back and forth trading points before Tomasevic called her last timeout of the set with the Sun Devils down 13-7. Arizona State was still unable to get anything going as the Cougars went on two different scoring runs to put the Sun Devils down 20-10. The Cougars were able to take the third set with a score of 25-14.
“I think we should have been confident. They were aggressive, they were confident,” sophomore outside hitter Roberta Rabelo said. “We should be confident as well. We need to be aggressive and we were not confident as we should have been and like we can be.”
Rabelo led the team in kills with 10 and aces with two.
Tomasevic emphasized the team needs to get better in these next couple of days before they take on Washington Sunday at home.
“There is a lot to do in a short period of time. We are going to watch ourselves tomorrow. We are going to come into the gym on Saturday and hopefully get ready for Washington on Sunday,” Tomasevic said.
Rabelo and the Sun Devils were able to beat a ranked Washington team last year and know they are more than capable of doing that again on Sunday.
“We have a really good mindset that we are going to win. We will go to the court to win like we did last year,” Rabelo claimed. “Even if it is the same team or different team, we are going to be better. We are going to watch the film and improve to play well on Sunday.”
Arizona State takes on No. 11 Washington on Sunday at noon.
