Arizona volleyball served well and played one of their best sets all season, but the Wildcats still fell to No. 13 ASU in a four-set match on Thursday evening in McKale Center. The Sun Devils won 25-23, 15-25, 25-19, 25-15.
“As a veteran, team (ASU) was just doing their job out there,” said Arizona head coach Rita Stubbs. “Didn’t do anything special.”
The Wildcats have dropped several sets this year simply by giving away points on their serve. On Thursday, they didn’t do that. They had just six service errors compared to 10 for ASU. Last time the two teams played, Arizona had 19 service errors in a four-set loss. Stubbs said that came about because of how they’ve adapted in practice.
“In our 6-on-6 competition, they had to serve a certain area,” Stubbs said. “And knowing that they had to go after a person, they didn’t have to look to move forward. They were able to reset themselves.”
For 2.5 sets, they were relatively clean on offense, too. The Wildcats started the match with just two kills and five hitting errors. They seemed to find their footing at that point, getting nine straight kills without another error to end the first set.
That wasn’t enough to take the 1-0 lead, though. ASU already had a 16-9 lead when Arizona found its way. The visiting team was just good enough down the stretch to emerge victorious in the set.
It could have put the Wildcats back on their heels when they weren’t able to fulfill the comeback. Instead, they carried the momentum into the second set.
Arizona had 17 kills and just two hitting errors in the second set. The Wildcats also had 22 digs and three total blocks as they dominated their in-state rivals.
“I think all the hitters were on,” said Arizona opposite Jaelyn Hodge. “Our passing was on. So you can run your offense really good when passing is on. Keeping them out of system is a part, too.”
A great team regroups, and that’s what ASU did in the third. Arizona used a 6-1 run to take an 11-9 lead, but that was the end of the runs for the home team. The Wildcats did not score more than one point in a row for the rest of the set while the Sun Devils had five runs of two or three points. They ended it on two straight aces.
That took the wind out of Arizona’s sails. The Sun Devils led wire-to-wire in the final set. Once again, UA let its opponent go on runs without answering in kind. The Wildcats scored two points in a row four times in the final set while ASU had two or more points seven times.
“We let them have long runs, even though we said our goal was to go point for point with them, and that was partly because the hitters, our offense was not good today by any stretch of the imagination,” Stubbs said. “We had 10 kills, 12 errors in the fourth set. In that situation, the hitters were just going out there swinging with reckless abandon, and that’s not good.”
The Sun Devils began to pile up the blocks. Arizona led 7.0 to 2.0 after three sets. ASU blocked the Wildcats five times in the final set, closing the UA lead in total blocks to 9-7. Arizona’s back-row attack, which was effective for most of the match, was suddenly accounted for by the ASU block.
“In the second set, we were able to move the ball around and put it in different hands,” Stubbs said. “Back row was something that we were scoring on. Then once they start putting the block up—because they didn’t block it last (match)—once they put the block in front, then we went to the D, but then we didn’t set it the way we were supposed to.”
Arizona was led on offense by Hodge and Jordan Wilson, although neither was very efficient. Hodge had 17 kills on .178 hitting, eight digs, and three total blocks (one solo). Wilson had 15 kills on .205 hitting, 14 digs, and four total blocks (one solo).
The ranked opponents continue as Arizona goes on the road next week to play Utah and BYU. The two teams are tied at No. 21 in the AVCA rankings. The Wildcats split their home matches against the two teams, losing to the Utes and defeating the Cougars.
Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics
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