(Photo: Aubrie McMillan/WCSN)
TEMPE – A 24-24 tie at the end of the first set had the Arizona State faithful anxiously awaiting what would come next. Both teams needed two consecutive points to win the set. After a short rally, Kansas senior outside hitter Caroline Bien wound her arm and hit the ball, but it didn’t find a spot of open floor on the other side of the net, instead, the ball found Arizona State graduate setter Argentina Ung and graduate middle blocker Savannah Kjolhede.
The duo jumped with their arms in the air, halting the ball and successfully sending it back towards the ground on Kansas’s side of the net. The Jayhawks tried to keep the rally alive, but couldn’t save the ball. It was a successful block for the Sun Devils who were now just one point away from winning the set.
The block and resulting point set up a serve from senior outside hitter Geli Cyr who ended the set with a service ace for a Sun Devils 26-24 set win.
No. 11 Arizona State (23-2, 11-1 Big 12) would go on to win two more sets and drop one, winning in four sets (26-24, 20-25, 25-20, 27-25) Wednesday night at Mullett Arena against its biggest conference challenge of the year, No. 8 Kansas (20-2, 11-1). The frontline defense was a factor in all four sets, racking up 14 big blocks in the win. It was something that head coach JJ Van Niel was happy to see and he explained how the Sun Devils good serving on the night led to the great block total.
“Our defense really stepped up and part of that was our serve,” Van Niel said. “We had six aces, eight errors, very happy with that. They had one and nine and that’s a massive difference so we’re putting pressure on them and it allows our blockers to be a little more aggressive on some things.”
ASU’s 14 blocks tied its season-high from earlier in the year when the Sun Devils beat Utah in four sets on October 2. Despite that performance and the performance on Wednesday night, the Sun Devils aren’t a team that normally produces many blocks, their 153 blocks rank just 14th in the conference.
ASU has improved its blocking in recent matches though, recording 20 blocks in its last eight sets before Wednesday night. Assistant coach Preslie Anderson has played a role in that.
“We do spend a decent amount of time getting prepared for our opponents,” Van Niel said. “ I think Preslie’s done a really good job with our middles, kind of helping them with some stuff. They take some pride in it. We’re working on it and it’s cool to see them execute.”
Kansas is one of the best teams at avoiding blocks in the conference, getting blocked an average of 1.83 times per set, fourth best in the conference. For what it’s worth, ASU is first with an average of 1.65.
Despite a team that’s hard to block, three Sun Devils recorded six or more total blocks. The team was led by Kjolhede and fellow graduate middle blocker Claire Jeter who contributed to seven blocks each. Graduate outside hitter Roberta Rabelo’s career-high six total blocks rounded out the top three.
It’s said that practice makes perfect and Jeter says the team works on blocking a lot and she gives credit to her teammates who she goes up against in practices for how the blockers perform in games.
“Obviously people like to say we’re a smaller team so we want to make sure that we’re a big presence at the net,” Jeter said. “We have some great hitters on our game changers side, (sophomore outside hitter) Jillian Neal is someone that puts up a big ball the majority of the time in practices that really messes with our block. Getting practice against someone that’s that good at fooling really, really helps us stay disciplined at the net.”
Even after recent improvement, ASU’s 1.89 blocks per set going into the matchup ranked 14th in the Big 12, but on Wednesday night the team showed its potential by matching the leaders blocks per set, Kansas with 2.58. Each team recorded 14 blocks and if Arizona State didn’t keep up with Kansas the match could have looked very different.
“Definitely a lot of pride (in matching Kansas’s block total),” Jeter said. “Like I said we’re not really known as a huge blocking team and I think these past couple of games we’ve shown that we are that blocking team. We can make up a difference at the net and we’re present there. Tying with the number one in our conference is pretty big.
