No. 13 Arizona State withstands back-and-forth sets to sweep cross-town rival Grand Canyon

(Photo: Sammy Nute/WCSN)

TEMPE – For a split second Mullett Arena erupted, fans believed their beloved Sun Devils had pulled off the victory over cross-town rivals Grand Canyon University. Senior outside hitter Geli Cyr had smacked the ball just inside the line to record what looked like a successful kill after a long rally with great Sun Devil defense, but GCU head coach Kendra Potts successfully challenged the play.

Instead of a match point kill for Cyr, her teammate, graduate middle blocker Savannah Kjolhede, was assessed for a blocking error on the rally and the Lopes tied the set 25-25.

Monday night’s game was full of back-and-forth action but the third set in particular looked like it was Grand Canyons’ to lose for a very long time. Arizona State had only gotten a lead in the third set when it made the score 21-20. After that point, ASU still couldn’t pull away and when it finally thought they won the set 26-24 it wasn’t to be. The Sun Devils could’ve lost focus but they knew it was a possibility that the call wouldn’t go their way and were ready to come back out onto the court and attack. They stayed focused, the bench stayed active, and the Sun Devils continued to fight.

Cyr got another kill immediately after, this one stood despite another attempted challenge from the Lopes. Then an attack error from GCU’s junior outside hitter Tatum Parrot, a potential side effect of ASU continuing to extend the rally with good defense, sealed the deal, handing ASU the set victory 27-25 as well as the victory.

No. 13 Arizona State (19-2, 7-1 Big 12) staying focused throughout the ups and downs of each set and especially during delays like the challenges was key for head coach JJ Van Niel and his team to sweep Grand Canyon (13-7, 6-2 WAC).

“We were just talking about what the plan was,” Van Niel said. “I think whenever you have those long delays it’s really trying to just focus on what’s next, just little reminders and then that kind of keeps me focused.”

The Sun Devils didn’t only face adversity in the third set, they fought tooth and nail throughout the entire first set as well. The biggest lead of set one was four points by the Lopes when it was 10-6, but throughout the back half of the set neither team could pull more than two scores away. The first set ended with a 25-23 score off of a kill from graduate setter Argentina Ung where it looked like she was going to set up a teammate with an assist, something she did successfully 33 times Monday night. Instead Ung surprised the Lopes frontline defense by dumping the ball over the net for the kill.

In the second set, an Arizona State four-point run to increase the lead from 16-15 to 20-15 made all the difference. The Sun Devils could’ve folded under the pressure, the need to pull away from Grand Canyon who they couldn’t seem to separate from, but the veteran team wasn’t phased and was able to take firm control of the lead.

“I don’t even know if they pay attention to the score half the time,” Van Niel said. “It’s a veteran team that’s pretty composed, so even though that team is putting a bunch of pressure on us they were just kind of (thinking) ‘what’s next, let’s go’. We had a lot of different people come in at different times and get good serving runs, make big plays.”

The need for players to step up continued into the third set as Van Niel had to look at his bench for ways to get back into the game.

The Sun Devils were down 14-8 and on the wrong side of a four-point scoring run when graduate outside hitter Roberta Rabelo got ASU a kill to start its own five-point scoring run and bring the Sun Devils back into the game.

“Just kind of felt like we were just a little off… it was just, all right let’s go get some little wrinkle to see if we can get a small little change and (Rabelo) came in and helped us gather rotation. … It was really just a little change, little wrinkle, just to see if it made a difference,” Van Niel said.

Rabelo ended the night with three kills after she came into the match. She’s in a smaller role on the team this year than she was last year when she was third on the team in kills, started 10 matches and played in 119 sets. She showed Monday night that she can still impact the team in a major way as ASU might not have pulled off the sweep without her.

Players stepping up as well as good defense were keys to pulling off the sweep. Arizona State was able to take advantage of long rallies where the Sun Devils played great defense in order to stay alive.

Three Sun Devils recorded double-digit digs and the group was led by graduate libero Mary Shroll’s 15. The more the defense can dig, the better chance they have of winning points, sets and matches.

“Having that grit, having that gas on defense really just extends rallies and puts pressure and then it gives us the opportunity when it’s there as we keep digging balls, finally (seeing) our opening, that’s when we put it away,” Shroll said.