(Photo: Xavier Litman/WCSN)
On Friday night in Tempe, Arizona State Women’s Volleyball trailed 22-24 in the second set after inching its way back in with the No. 25 ranked Washington State Cougars. After taking the point off an attack error from the Cougars, senior libero Annika Larson-Nummer was lined up for service, hoping to keep her team in the set.
Under the bright lights and electric crowd in Desert Financial Arena, the ball sailed straight into the net, giving the Cougars the set, and a 2-0 lead on ASU. The same service error was repeated in the third set to give WSU match point. Despite starting out each set going point for point, the Sun Devils were unable to maintain their momentum throughout and were quickly swept by WSU.
Consistency under pressure has been an issue for the Sun Devils all season long, and head coach Sanja Tomasevic is the first to recognize this.
“I’m disappointed with the performance today, you know it feels like we play well until the pressure hits and then once the pressure hits we crumble,” Tomasevic said. “You get a lot of tough opponents to play and pressure is always going to be on, we just have to do better under pressure.”
ASU managed to keep each set close (23-25, 22-25, 22-25), staying within one or two points the whole way, but ultimately lacked the discipline to pull away from WSU.
Statistically, the skill level of the WSU players was not an issue. With both teams’ hitting percentages less than half a point of each other, and the Cougars had just one extra kill, ASU was clearly able to keep up with its offense.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for ASU, though. Senior middle blocker Magda Jehlarova gave the Sun Devils some trouble with her defense at the net. Jehlarova, who currently leads the Pac-12 in blocks this season, stuffed ASU with her game-high eight blocks.
But it was little mistakes and lapses of focus throughout the sets that eventually caught up to the Sun Devils.
“The amount of times our team was calling ‘out out out’ when the ball was clearly in, it was just unbelievable tonight,” Tomasevic said. “It’s like they were hoping someone would make a mistake instead of having to make a play.”
Junior outside hitter Marta Levinska led the way offensively for ASU with a match-high 12 kills on a .385 hitting percentage. On the defensive side, small highlights shine through a disappointing game. Larson was all over the floor to lead the game with 12 digs to reach 1,000 career digs today.
“It’s exciting,” Larson said. “You know, I think as you start to become a senior those little things are kind of like encouragement that you’re on the right track.”
ASU will hope to find a way to maintain its momentum throughout the match, which will be tested on Sunday when No. 20 Washington visits Tempe.
“I think that sometimes we show up at different times of the matches,” Larson said. “I think that being able to play consistently through all of that is going to be key. We know that as a team, but it’s important as we move forward to actually implement that. Just starting strong and finishing strong. I think that will be something that will help us in the next game.”
