No. 15 Sun Devils battle back from first set loss to defeat Utah

(Photo: Maya Diaz/WCSN)

TEMPE — Towards the beginning of the fourth set in the contest between Arizona State and Utah, Utes sophomore outside hitter and kills leader Kamryn Gibadlo attacked the Sun Devils left side defense with a screaming swing right at the net.

As Gibadlo left the ground, so did graduate middle blocker Claire Jeter for ASU. Jeter reached up with both arms extended to deflect the attack into the pitchfork logo sitting at Gibadlo’s feet. Once again she had stymied the Utes offense at the net, a key part of the Sun Devils’ home victory at Mullet Arena.

No. 15 Arizona State defeated Utah 3-1, improving to 13-2 on the season, and 2-1 in Big 12 Conference play. Although the Sun Devils won the last three sets, they lost the first set 25-17 and struggled in the early going of the match.

The match began with a rough first set from the Sun Devils as they fell 25-15, but ASU (13-2, 2-1 Big 12) swept the next three sets, defeating Utah (12-2, 2-1 Big 12) 3-1.

“Really, really proud of the team for kinda battling back,” ASU head coach JJ Van Niel said. “[Utah] came out playing really really well. They weren’t making errors. They played a very clean game. They put a ton of pressure on us.”

Utah’s defense proved tough to penetrate, as it had 25 digs in the first set to go with three blocks. The Utes also capitalized on a Sun Devil squad that had nine first set attack errors for the second time in as many games, limiting ASU to just eight kills.

During that first set, the Utes offense consistently found weak points in Arizona State’s defense. Accurate attacks to vulnerable parts of the court resulted in 15 kills on 42 attempts with just two errors for the Utes.

The Sun Devils responded by shoring up the defense at the net, blocking 14 attacks and impacting even more at the point of attack. Jeter finished the night with nine total blocks, tied for the most in a single game in her career. This is the third time Jeter has reached nine blocks in a game, with the first coming all the way back against Utah during her sophomore season in 2021.

Contesting shots at the net created space for the Sun Devils to notch digs and keep volleys alive. Graduate libero Mary Shroll led the charge with 23 of the team’s 85 digs, and emphasized how important winning rallies was for ASU.

“We had a lot of really long rallies,” Shroll said. “Every time that you win those, it’s just a huge, huge momentum builder.”

As a result of the momentum from the Sun Devils’ defensive success, offensive opportunities opened up. Multiple Arizona State hitters scored double-digit kills. Jeter had 10 and fellow graduate middle blocker Savannah Kjolhede collected 12 at an eye-popping .800 kill percentage.

Arizona State’s offense found another gear in the final set in order to put Utah away for good. 15 kills at a game single-set best .394 hitting percentage and six points off of blocks sent the Sun Devils into Friday’s match with No. 20 BYU with confidence in their resiliency.

“Your team can react in one of two ways,” Van Niel said. “We got a pretty veteran team and they’re just like ‘alright cool, down set 1-0, let’s make a couple changes, clean up some things’ and they came out and executed pretty flawlessly the rest of the match.”