(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)
Coming off their second 3-0 win of the season against Cal (1-15) on Friday, Arizona State (4-10) repeated the sweep against the Golden Bears in straight sets (25-17, 25-17, 26-24) Sunday in Tempe.
The Sun Devils have won nine sets in a row since their five-set comeback victory over Arizona on March 7.
“It feels like something that was long anticipated,” sophomore outside hitter Iman Isanovic said. “We have really young and really good players with great potential, so it is just nice to see our hard work paying (off).”
Outside hitter Iman Isanovic had a career high five aces in Friday’s win and the success in serving continued in the first set of the second match. Two of senior middle blocker Megan Beedie’s aces came in the opening set to help the Sun Devils push out to a 17-10 lead. As for the Sun Devils on serve receive, they did not give up an ace at all in the win, which was their first time this season doing so.
The Sun Devils outnumbered the Bears on blocks nine to two, which helped the Sun Devils lead and win by eight in the first set, 25-17. A block by Beedie and freshman outside hitter Marta Levinska at the end of the first contributed to the defeat.
Isanovic picked up four kills with no errors in the first set, and had six kills along with an ace by the mid point of the second set and credits sophomore setter Shannon Shields for her strong play. Shields finished with 33 assists in the afternoon.
“Shannon Shields was running a good offense and she was making it easier for me to get those kills,” Isanovic said. “Because a lot of the time, it isn’t just a one-man work, there was a lot of the team involved.”
ASU opened the second set on a 5-0 run and during the run they had back-to-back blocks. Cal went on to tie the set 8-8, but back-to-back errors for the Bears gave the Sun Devils the lead back. Cal would finish with 20 errors in the match.
Blocks continued to rack up for ASU as the Sun Devils began to pull away late in the second set following a solo block by freshman outside hitter Roberta Rabelo, and ASU would go on to win the second set, 25-17. Rabelo had a career-high 11 kills along with the second set block.
The Bears opened the third set with a 9-5 lead, but the Sun Devils put together a 4-0 run to take a lead around the middle of the third set, 16-15. Head coach Sanja Tomasevic said the team working on their short term memory loss between plays is something to look forward to with a young group.
“As a coach you’ve got to be happy when something you preach so much finally starts sticking and we start seeing the benefit of it,” Tomasevic said. “It’s really exciting and really reassuring for our future.”
At the conclusion of the third set and match, Cal was able to tie the match when the Sun Devils had their first match point, but a kill from Levinska that the Bears tried to challenge went the Sun Devils’ way as they took the third set, 26-24.
“What a fun way to finish the weekend,” Tomasevic said. “I’m super proud of the finish in the third set and that we won the game. We were playing really close at the end, so that was exciting.”
The win is ASU’s third at home this season. Arizona State looks to improve upon their road record as they travel to Palo Alto for two matches versus Stanford on March 19 and March 21. Friday’s match can be viewed on Stanford’s live stream and Sunday’s match can be viewed on the Pac-12 Network.
