(Photo: Savannah Sannes/WCSN)
One goal that multiple players on No. 9 Arizona State volleyball have been outspoken about has been establishing ASU as a volleyball school. While the 2023 season saw historic success, the Sun Devils had to prove they were here to stay.
Friday’s match against Cincinnati was ASU’s 28th match of the season. Around this time last year, the Sun Devils had 24 wins – the third-highest win total in program history at the time. ASU finished the 2023 regular season with 26 wins before picking up two more in the NCAA tournament.
Entering Friday with 25 wins, a win against the Bearcats would match the 2023 regular season win total, further advancing ASU’s goal of becoming a volleyball powerhouse. That’s exactly what happened as the Sun Devils (26-2, 14-1 Big 12) continued to roll, sweeping Cincinnati (13-12, 4-10 Big 12) 25-16, 25-16, 25-21.
Friday’s sweep was ASU’s 17th of the season, second-most in program history. The top spot of 20 sweeps was set by last season’s team. Additionally, the Sun Devils have now won their 14th conference match of the season, tying the record that was also set by the last season’s team.
Last year, ASU’s 14-match win streak to start the season became the third-highest win streak in program history. The Sun Devils have now won 14 matches in a row dating back to October 2nd, tying last season’s team with the third-longest win streak all time. A win against Iowa State on the 21st would extend ASU’s win streak to 15, which would tie 2015’s team for the second-longest win streak in program history.
Making this streak more impressive is the Sun Devils being forced to do more over the past two matches. Friday’s match was the second in a row without senior outside hitter Geli Cyr in the lineup. Nevertheless, ASU extended the streak to 14 with wins in straight sets against West Virginia this past Wednesday and Cincinnati on Friday.
Cyr, one of the team’s premier players, has been sidelined due to injury. In her absence, the Sun Devils have called upon sophomore Jillian Neal to act as a placeholder in the lineup. Despite not being a starter, Neal has shown flashes whenever she’s been on the court.
These flashes have been most apparent in the serving aspect. From a statistical standpoint, Neal’s been the team’s best server this season with a team-leading 31 aces including one on Friday. She also leads the team with 0.39 aces-per-set.
Neal has done a remarkable job in both starts with a career-high 14 kills against West Virginia and eight kills against Cincinnati. While she hasn’t quite matched Cyr’s production on offense, Neal has contributed in that area and made an impact defensively. On Friday, Neal set career-highs against the Bearcats in both digs with 11 and blocks with two.
Neal wasn’t the only one making her presence known on defense, as the Sun Devils gave Cincinnati’s offense fits all afternoon. In all three sets, the Bearcats didn’t see a hitting percentage above .200 with the highest mark being .194 in the second set. Cincinnati collectively hit a mere .113 against ASU, the fourth-lowest clip by the Bearcats in a match this season.
Defensively, the block party continued for the Sun Devils with 10 total blocks. This was the fifth consecutive match in which ASU put up double-digit team blocks. The blocking charge was led by graduate middle blockers Claire Jeter and Savannah Kjolhede, who co-led the team in total blocks with five each.
As with the team, Jeter is chasing program history as she is now second in career block assists in ASU history with 364. She’s now 14 away from the top spot in this metric. Jeter has been vocal all season long about her belief that the Sun Devils can rise even more than they already have.
An example of her expressing this belief came after the win against Houston on October 16th. At the time, ASU was ranked 13th in the country. Exactly one month later, the Sun Devils have made their way into the top 10 and are now ninth, not losing a single match in the meantime.
“We are even better than number 13 and we’re going to work our way up,” Jeter said. “Knowing that we’re here to stay and it’s not a fluke is a big thing.”
