(Photo: Savannah Sannes/WCSN)
TEMPE – When Friday night’s match was tied at 1-1, No. 11 Arizona State volleyball faced a 14-9 deficit to Kansas State in the third set. After being outplayed in the second set, the pressure was on ASU as they aimed to avoid an upset loss to the Wildcats.
KSU took the commanding lead by going on an 8-1 scoring run. A service error by Sun Devil libero Mary Shroll was Kansas State’s 14th point of the set. A kill by setter Argentina Ung decreased the deficit to four points. Middle blocker Claire Jeter didn’t let the Wildcats cancel out Ung’s kill as the graduate student followed it up with a kill and a block. However, Ung offset her kill in a way after committing a service error, widening the gap back to three points.
ASU fought back. The first two points were attributed to graduate outside hitter Roberta Rabelo, one being a kill and the other an assisted block with the assisting blocker being Jeter. Jeter notched another block assist, this time next to senior outside hitter Geli Cyr.
These three unanswered points were half of a 6-0 scoring run to give ASU an 18-15 lead after being down by five earlier in the set. Rabelo accounted for half of the scoring run with two kills and the block assist. Nonetheless, four of the six unanswered points being scored by Rabelo, Jeter, & Cyr foreshadowed the top three contributors to ASU’s (24-2, 12-1 Big 12) win over KSU (9-12, 7-5 Big 12) in four sets 25-22, 21-25, 25-20, 25-23.
“We’re down by four or five points, I’m like, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me,’” Sun Devil head coach JJ Van Niel said. “We were down a lot, and we were still able to battle back.”
Not only did Rabelo account for most of that scoring run, but the Brazilian had the most individual points of any ASU player as well. The Sun Devils collectively had 64 individual points on the night, with Rabelo having 15. Her team-leading 13 kills and 15 points were both season-high marks.
Playing a key role as a starter for the Sun Devils last season, Rabelo returned to ASU after the most productive season of her career. However, West Virginia transfer Bailey Miller overtook Rabelo’s spot in the lineup.
After playing just 31 sets before October 24th’s match against Arizona, Rabelo had eight kills off the bench in three sets against ASU’s rival. Since then, her role has significantly increased with 18 sets played in the last five matches. Over this span, Rabelo has notched 45 kills.
“This late in the season to have her come off and have these matches is really helpful,” Van Niel said. “We need her to be good, and she’s been great the last several matches.”
Along with Rabelo, Jeter was key to the Sun Devils overcoming a five-point deficit in the third set. Jeter’s nine blocks on Friday night matched her career-high and the blocking output was complemented with nine kills. Additionally, Jeter has been the driving force of a surge in ASU blocking production as of recently.
Prior to Halloween, the Sun Devils only had two matches all season with collective double-digit blocks. Over the last three matches, ASU has collectively picked up double-digit blocks in each of them with the 15 blocks on Friday night being a season-high for the Sun Devils. In the last three matches combined, Jeter has picked up 22 total blocks.
“We’ve definitely been working a little harder on the block side of things,” Van Niel said. “That’s an area that all of them are pretty fired up about getting better at.”
Outside hitter Geli Cyr only contributed an assisted block to the six unanswered points in the third set. However, Cyr’s presence was far more evident in the third set with six kills and two total blocks.
On Friday night, Cyr had the second-most kills on the team with 12. This was Cyr’s 19th match with double-digit kills this season and her three total blocks matched a season high. Notably, Cyr added a milestone to her resume by becoming the 21st Sun Devil to reach 1,000 career kills.
“She’s got an unbelievable eye for the game,” Van Niel said. “I had no idea she got 1,000 kills, that’s cool. I got to congratulate her.”
While it was Rabelo and Jeter who got ASU back into the match, it was Rabelo and Cyr who sealed the Sun Devil victory. Compared to Cyr, Rabelo had a relatively quiet third set with the same number of kills and total blocks being a mere two.
What added value to the second kill was the time in which it happened. ASU had set point at 24-23 with 4,300 fans at Desert Financial Arena cheering on their feet. When all it took to win the match was a point, Rabelo delivered with a kill.
“We were tight with them and finishing the game right there was good,” Rabelo said. “It was a pretty good feeling.”
