Sun Devils Swept By No. 5 Nebraska, Endure First Loss

(Photo: Ritisha Thakker/WCSN)

Before No. 14 Arizona State volleyball (7-1) faced No. 5 Nebraska (7-1), Sun Devil head coach JJ Van Niel emphasized serving as a key to the match.

“I was doing an interview earlier today; they said, ‘what are the keys?’” Van Niel explained. “I said, ‘we’ve got to serve really tough and knock them out of the system.’”

Unfortunately for ASU, Van Niel’s vision didn’t materialize as the Sun Devils had trouble putting pressure on Nebraska’s serve receive all night. Constant service errors gave the Cornhuskers free points in crucial moments. Especially in the second set, when ASU was up 22-21.

Already down a set, the Sun Devils had to finish the set strong. However, when it was essential for ASU to play clean volleyball, a service error was committed by graduate middle blocker Claire Jeter. After the match was tied at 23, another service error was committed by redshirt freshman setter Brynn Covell, giving Nebraska set point. Senior outside hitter Geli Cyr extended the set with a kill but couldn’t capitalize on the following serve, giving the Cornhuskers set point again.

This time, Nebraska senior outside hitter Merritt Beason ended the set with a kill to give Nebraska a 2-0 match lead. The second set was tightly contested with eight lead changes and 18 ties. ASU will likely look back on this second set as a missed opportunity to gain momentum as it proved to be critical in a sweep loss to Nebraska 25-20, 24-26, 19-25.

The second set wasn’t the only set in which serving was a self-inflicted wound for the Sun Devils. Along with committing 12 service errors, ASU had no aces throughout the entire match. Prior to Friday night, the lowest amount of aces ASU had in a match all season was seven.

In the first set, ASU had five service errors in a five-point set loss, and of these five, ASU’s first and last service errors of the set were especially costly. The first service error of the set occurred when the Sun Devils led 4-2. Graduate setter Argentina Ung committed the error and Nebraska built a 4-0 run off of the Washington State transfer’s mistake. The Cornhuskers got up 6-4 and ASU didn’t lead at any point during the remainder of the set. The final service error ended the set when Nebraska had set point at 24-20. It was freshman libero Piper Rama’s second serving error as a Sun Devil.

Along with the service errors, ASU was unable to keep up with Nebraska’s offense throughout the entirety of the match. In all three sets, the Sun Devils had a lower hitting percentage than the Cornhuskers. ASU’s .213 collective hitting percentage was considerably lower than Nebraska’s .319 clip.

“That team is so physical. If you’re not getting them out of system, it’s really hard to stop them.” Van Niel said. “They hit three-something, I think on the season that’s far and away the best any team has hit.”

ASU came into Friday night’s match with the 13th lowest hitting percentage allowed in the nation. Nebraska’s .319 collective hitting percentage was the first time the Sun Devils had allowed a mark over .200 all season. Van Niel attributes this to ASU’s serving being unable to get the Cornhuskers out of system.

“We defended, I thought, actually pretty well given how in-system they were.” Van Niel said. “We just got to knock them out more.”

Nebraska had a three-headed juggernaut on offense. Merritt Beason led the Cornhuskers with 15 kills, followed by sophomore middle blocker Andi Jackson and sophomore outside hitter Harper Murray who each had 10. Additionally, sophomore setter Bergen Reilly paced the offense well with 41 assists.

Even though passing wasn’t an issue for ASU with 38 assists, Nebraska had almost 10 more assists than the Sun Devils with 47. This was an area that Van Niel stressed as important heading into the match.

“The nice thing is if we have multiple options, Claire (Jeter) doesn’t have to carry a heavy load,” he said before the match. “So I think the key for us is just going to be passing.”

Jeter, who came into this match leading the nation with a .604 hitting percentage, had her least efficient offensive performance of the season with a .368 hitting percentage. This was the first time that her hitting percentage fell below the .400 mark. Furthermore, Jeter had more than zero blocking errors for the first time all season with two.

Offensively, ASU had two players with double-digit kills, Cyr with 14 and graduate outside hitter Shania Cromartie with 10. Cyr now leads the team with 87 kills on the season and her .357 hitting percentage was the first time she surpassed the .300 mark since the beginning of the month.

Before the match, Van Niel already saw this matchup against the fifth ranked team in the nation as an opportunity to learn more about where his team stands. After getting swept, the learning experience is even more apparent.

“I think when we were able to get this on the schedule, that was a really nice challenge to get early on and get a good measure of where we’re at,” Van Niel said before the match. “Anytime you get to play in front of a big crowd against a quality team like Nebraska, they’re going to find all the holes you got.”

After the match, Van Niel described lessons for both himself and the players. For the players, it was predictably related to serving.

“We’ve got to clean up our serving a little bit,” he said. “I think everyone played really well. We just kind of struggled from the serves.”

For himself, Van Niel expressed regret over some in-game substitutions.

“We made some subs to just try to change some things up and give them some different looks. I thought a couple areas I screwed up on that.” he said. “I’m a little frustrated, but all you can do is go back and learn.”