(Photo: Trey Lanthier/WCSN)
The No. 18 Arizona State Sun Devils travelled to Eugene for their first road match in two weeks and upset the No. 11 Oregon Ducks in five sets (19-25, 26-24, 20-25, 26-24, 15-9).
The Sun Devils did well to keep the fast Oregon offense from their usual dominant, efficient play as well. The Ducks committed 38 attacking errors and were held to a .137 clip. ASU also recorded 21 blocks in the match.
In their own right, The Ducks’ defense bottled up the ASU offense for much of the match, keeping the Sun Devils to a .150 hitting percentage. Additionally, Oregon kept ASU junior outside hitter Macey Gardner contained for the majority of the game.
After being held to just two kills in the first set, Gardner racked up 10 in the second set and finished with 24 kills for the night to go along with 17 digs and eight blocks. She also eclipsed 1,400 kills for her career.
Brenner paced both sides of the net for Oregon, putting up 17 kills and 20 digs.
Just behind Brenner was junior outside hitter Martenne Brattendorf with 17 kills and 7 blocks.
The Ducks were the highest-ranked team to fall to ASU since the Sun Devils defeated then-No. 9 USC early in conference season.
The five-set win was also ASU’s second consecutive match to go the full length after the Sun Devils came back from two sets down to defeat Washington State last weekend. They will look to come up with their first weekend sweep in the Pac-12 when when they square off against Oregon State tomorrow in Corvallis at 7 p.m.
You can reach Zac Pacleb on Twitter @ZacPacleb or via email at zacpacleb@gmail.com.
