TEMPE – As the officials blew for the first media timeout, history looked repeat itself. A slow start, intertwined with a scarce crowd, left Arizona State down 15-14 in the first set, with no energy to be found.
The No. 10 Sun Devils were this exact type of scenario for much of the season; against Utah, Arizona and Iowa State, head coach JJ Van Niel’s squad fell asleep for a set, despite winning the match.
This time, however, was different.
After struggling for much of the first set, fourth-year opposite side hitter Noemie Glover looked to find her moment. With the score sitting at 17 apiece, Glover looked across the net, swaying intently back and forth.
Houston struggled to set up its offense with fourth-year setter Isabella Costantini’s serve, giving the Sun Devils a free-ball chance. With a set near the net, Glover was there to terminate, picking up her first kill of the match after three prior errors.
Glover’s kill proved to be the spark the Sun Devils(18-4, 9-2 Big 12) needed as they won the set, eventually winning two more to sweep the Cougars(13-9, 6-5 Big 12) 3-0. Sunday’s match was Glover’s season-low in kills: six on a .143 hitting percentage.
“I don’t really ever think of what set we’re winning or losing,” Van Niel said. “It’s more about execution. There was stuff in the first set we weren’t really executing the way I thought we needed to, and I think the thing I appreciated the most today was after that kind of media break. We were pretty good at the things we talked about executing beyond that. So they did a nice job kind of recovering.”
For much of the game, Houston’s defense honed in on the former AVCA first team All-American, leaving her with no space to work. Instead, the Sun Devils looked to third-year outside hitter Una Vajagic to be the dominant offensive force. Dominate she did.
While the team-leading 15 kills may not jump off the stat sheet, the efficiency in which Vajagic performed allowed the ASU offense to maintain a positive track. The Serbian native hit a .283 hitting percentage, with many of her five errors coming due to lackluster passing. Combine that with three service aces, and Vajagic continues to show why she was added to the AVCA National Player of the Year watchlist.
“I think for us as a team, we want to cover everybody so we don’t feel like anybody’s missing,” Vajagic said. “I think we did a great job with passing today, so we can play. We could play with middles too, and I think we didn’t feel that loss at all.”
Unfettered by her below-par offensive performance, Glover displayed why Van Niel and much of the national media hold her in such high regard. Defensively, the California native dug out 10 balls along with three blocks, helping the Sun Devils put together a smothering 10-block performance.
“Noemie maybe was a little off offensively,” Van Niel said. “But had 10 digs, and she was digging some heat. So it was great to see.”
As the season has progressed, danger at the service line, both offensively and defensively, has been either the team’s biggest strength or the epicenter of its demise. On Sunday, Van Niel’s staff’s work culminated.
With the Sun Devils up 14-9 in the third set, Vajagic went back to serve. On the Houston side of the net, there was apparent tension.
The Cougars were hanging on for dear life.
Vajagic cut the rope.
The third-year outside hitter rattled off four serves in a row, including back-to-back aces, leading to Sun Devil points–demoralizing the Cougars and abandoning any slim hopes of a comeback. ASU finished Sunday’s contest with seven aces, tied for its fifth-highest this season.
“I would say we’re a pretty defensive team,” Van Niel said. “We talk a lot about smothering our opponents defensively. Serve them tough, and smother on defense. We just continue to emphasize that and try to make that a key aspect of our program.
Earning the weekend sweep could prove to be crucial to the Sun Devils’ hopes of hosting the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season. Two unranked losses plus a lack of sweeps gave the NCAA Tournament Volleyball Selection Committee a reason to leave the team out of its initial seedings when it was released two weeks ago, in spite of a Rating Percentage Index ranking of No. 15.
“My team knows me pretty well,” Van Niel said. “They’ve seen me yell at my coaches for bringing [rankings] up. I usually tell them at the beginning of the season, I don’t want to hear any talk about ranking. I have no idea where we’re ranked. I don’t care. I have no idea where we’re in the Big 12. I don’t care. To me, it’s just what’s our next match, and how do we execute against that?”
“Every match you play is your championship match. So for me, that’s how I approach it, and I think they know that, and I don’t really need to remind them. I think they’ve been reminded enough.”
With a steep road to a third-straight conference title following the loss to then-No. 11 BYU, it would’ve been easy for the Sun Devils to lose focus and try to do too much trying to chase the Cougars. Rather, the Sun Devils chose a different path, looking at the team in front of them, earning their second and third conference sweeps of the season.
“I’m really proud of this team,” third-year libero Faith Frame said. “We met as a team and just talked about things we wanted to be better at as a team, and we’re really seeing that in practice, and then it’s also showing in games, and it can be tough after a loss like that to come back. But I think we’ve worked even harder, and it kind of put a fire under us instead of making us not want to work as hard.”
ASU sits at No. 11 in the latest RPI rankings, last updated on Oct. 25, in an advantageous spot to host. However, the Sun Devils will need to continue stacking wins as they did over the weekend in order to keep that spot.
ASU will return to the court on the road in Lubbock, Texas, as it takes on Texas Tech at 5 p.m. MST.
“I think this weekend was really good,” third-year libero Faith Frame said. “Dialing in on the things we needed to get better at, and trying to focus on staying more consistent and playing just as a team the entire game instead of just picking and choosing what set we want to. And we did a good job of that this weekend, and so I think this gave us a lot of confidence that we can play consistent volleyball.”
