(Photo: Samantha Farsky/WCSN)
TEMPE — Thousands of fans stood on their feet along the lower bowl of Desert Financial Arena, screaming and making pitchfork signs with their hands as the match point volley returned to Arizona State’s side.
Graduate outside hitter Shania Cromartie leaped high in the air to swat down a set from her teammate on the left side of the net, and buried the ball into the far right corner on the opposing side. The Sun Devils’ side of the floor filled with a sea of gold jerseys as Arizona State rushed to embrace Cromartie and celebrate its first NCAA tournament win on home court since 1995.
Amidst all the celebration and historical relevance of the victory, head coach JJ Van Niel’s Sun Devils remain focused on the next step.
“I can’t think of any time in our gym where we looked ahead and started talking about other things,” Van Niel said. “It’s always just been about what’s next, and ‘let’s go take care of business,’ and I think good things happen when you do that.”
While hosting the first round of the NCAA Volleyball tournament for the first time in 29 years, the No. 3 seed Sun Devils (30-2, 17-1) swept the New Hampshire Wildcats (18-10, 7-3) as part of its second-ever 30-win season and the first this century. The accolades don’t end there, as the win ties the program record for sweeps in a season, 20, and extends the second-longest winning streak in program history to 18.
But as Van Niel said during the post-game press conference, all Arizona State was concerned about was taking care of New Hampshire. To do so, the Sun Devils relied on their veterans for much of their production.
Graduate outside hitter Roberta Rabelo and middle blocker Claire Jeter led the way offensively. Rabelo had a game-high 11 kills, her second time earning double figures in the stat this season. Meanwhile, Jeter turned in an all-around performance, collecting 10 kills at a .500 hitting percentage, eight blocks, and a career-best six service aces.
In addition, Cromartie added nine kills of her own, combining with Rabelo and Jeter for 20 of ASU’s 43 kills.
Though that mark was enough to get the job done against the Wildcats, Van Niel believes there is work to be done on the offensive end ahead of Arizona State’s next match.
“I think we were pressing a little too hard in some areas that normally we kind of manage and shift over some stuff,” Van Niel said.
The Sun Devils finished Friday evening’s contest with 19 attack errors. Some of those were misplaced attacks, others were New Hampshire blocks. The Wildcats’ utilized their size up front to deflect and pressure ASU’s hitters consistently throughout the match. Even when it didn’t record a block, New Hampshire redirected the trajectory of the Sun Devils’ attacks with just the presence of its blockers at the net.
Despite the Wildcats’ formidable net defense, Arizona State matched New Hampshire up front with its own physicality and intensity, turning in 11 team blocks.
Furthermore, the Sun Devils added pressure through a dominant serving attack. ASU had eight aces compared to zero for New Hampshire, which helped the Devils control the pace of the game.
“It feels great, I think that’s a big part of our game,” Friday’s aces leader Jeter said. “I think being able to come out and dominate is really, really awesome. I think its also awesome that we’re in our home court where we practice every day.”
For Jeter and her fellow veteran teammates, Friday’s win was about more than the victory or the records. Hosting a tournament match has been ASU’s goal since the beginning of the season, as was competing for the national championship. Beyond that, Rabelo added that playing in front of the home crowd in Tempe for potentially the last time is even more important.
“I’m so happy to finish the season with the NCAA game at home after five years,” Rabelo said. “I remember when I first stopped at DFA it was so huge for me, coming from those small high school gyms, and I’d never seen anything like it. And now that we have 3000, 4000 people attending and all the community coming, its awesome. I’ll remember that forever.”
The focus now for the Sun Devils is their second round match against Texas A&M. The No. 6 seed Aggies (20-7, 10-6) defeated the Colorado State Rams in four sets earlier on Friday to advance in the NCAA tournament. Similarly to New Hampshire, A&M has potent left-handed outside hitters to watch out for. Arizona State graduate libero and Big 12 Conference Libero of the Year Mary Shroll was confident that her Sun Devils will be ready for the challenge.
”We’ve just been preparing for really right side dominant teams going into this,” the recent draft selection of the PVF’s Vegas Thrill said. “I think that obviously doesn’t change tomorrow.”
