No. 9 Sun Devils leaders at the forefront in win vs. Utah: ‘There’s no blood. Let’s go.’

TEMPE – It started with a bloodbath. Almost.

After No. 9 Arizona State’s 25-6 first-set win, it seemed as if the knives were out, trying to slash its opponents down. Just over an hour later, it was the lack of blood that was the microcosm of the Sun Devils’ afternoon.

The ball was spiked down like a missile. Rather than hitting the ground, the rocket went straight for third-year libero Faith Frame’s face. As the leather and rubber ball hit the tip of her nose, Frame went down. An audible gasp rang throughout Desert Financial Arena.

“There’s no blood, let’s go,” Frame said.

Last weekend, after a slow start against Houston, Frame was vocal, saying the Sun Devils needed to stop “picking and choosing when we decide to lock in”.

On Sunday, it was Frame who made the choice. Rather than stay down, or even take a play off, Frame immediately got up, through the throbbing pain in her nose, and went to work. Fitting for one of ASU’s leaders.

Through a multitude of tough moments on Sunday, the Sun Devils’(20-4, 11-2 Big 12) leaders, led by Frame, helped guide them to their second victory over Utah(13-10, 5-7 Big 12), both coming with a 3-1 scoreline.

“I’m really proud of Faith because I think this year she’s stepped up in a pretty big way with on-court leadership,” head coach JJ Van Niel said. “ She’s really steady. Even if she’s not playing well, she’s kind of cool, calm, and collected the whole time. One of the things I’ve seen is she does a really good job with the on-court stuff, like in the huddle, communicating what we need, making sure we’re actually going into the huddle. That’s a big thing in volleyball.”

During the timeout following the Sun Devils third-set loss, Frame did just that. She rallied the troops together, bringing the group of seven or eight players in tightly, attempting to relight the spark from the first two sets. While Van Niel stood in the middle discussing tactics, it was the players who spread the energy.

“I’m not as good as Kenny [Dillingham] at being fiery,” Van Niel said. “It mostly comes down to these things we need to work on. These are things we need to be executing on, and you’re just trying to get reminders because the game goes fast. There’s matchup rotations, and there’s a lot for these kids to remember. So usually that’s all it is. Getting back to being us.”

Though ASU’s coach isn’t always the fiery type, he has a plethora of players, including fourth-year opposite side hitter Noemie Glover, who can accomplish that goal. As the third-set score sat at 10 apiece, Utah started to brush off the Sun Devil attacks with ease.

Every time Glover went up to swing her left arm, the Utes seemed to have a counter. Frustrating for the former All-American. When Van Niel took a timeout at 17-12 in favor of Utah, Glover looked furious, like there was a weight gnawing on her shoulders.

The Sun Devils lost the set, but Glover gained some insight into herself. She figured out a way to take a deep breath, refocus and trust her teammates, rather than try to be the hero–something that has been a struggle for someone with that type of fiery, competitive spirit.

“I feel like I’m too mature to have those types of moments,” Glover said. “So going into the fourth set, my mindset was totally just what shots can I do, how can I read rather than necessarily going for the highlight play.”

Joining Glover and Frame in assisting the Sun Devils’ morale was fifth-year outside hitter Aniya Clinton. Having not played much in recent games, Clinton expressed her leadership on the bench, consistently being one of the first players to greet her teammates as they came to the bench.

When her moment finally came, she took it.

Late in the first set, second-year outside hitter Maeva Schalk came up limping, seeming to hurt her ankle, causing her to be taken to the locker room. Between the time that Schalk went off and returned to the court late in the fourth set, Clinton came in relief.

Despite her earlier season struggles, the graduate transfer proved to be an effective replacement for Schalk, picking up a single kill along with three blocks–becoming one of six Sun Devils to record multiple blocks.

“She’s an absolute gem,” Van Niel said. “She’s having fun. She’s working hard. Aniya’s been great. I can’t say enough good things about her. She brings it in the gym and the practice gym, so it’s really nice that we have two options over there. Someone goes down, we got her to go in, and she got a gnarly stuff block. I think she ended up with a few blocks in that match. So she’s physical, got a kill. She’s great.”

As the end of the regular season approaches, ASU sits at No. 10 in the Rating Percentage Index, an ideal spot to host. Both Frame and Glover were a part of last season’s team that hosted and won a regional in Tempe, and will hope to apply the lessons they learned in hopes of competing for a national championship.

“The tournament is a different switch in everyone’s brain,” Glover said. “If you can activate those high-pressure moments early in the season, you’re going to be able to withstand the same type of energy that you want to create. So, I feel like we’ve definitely hit a point now where we know what type of energy we need to be successful. So, if you know we feel a slip, how can we kind of keep pulling back, pulling back into a team that is well connected?”

The Sun Devils are set to have a week off before heading down the I-10 to take on their rivals, Arizona. In the face of “hate week”, Van Niel hopes that the leadership that his team displayed Sunday afternoon will be steady.

“We just take every week the same way,” Van Niel said. “I think if you start changing things up, then you’re signaling to your players that something’s different. And yes, it’s a rival match, but every match we play is important, and every match is a championship match. So I like it because we get them an extra day off. You know, we’re getting into kind of a grind part of the season.”