This article was originally posted on November 14, 2022
The No. 20 Washington Huskies (18-8, 10-6 Pac-12) defeated Arizona State Volleyball (11-17, 5-11 Pac-12) in five sets (18-25, 25-19, 25-16, 25-27, 15-8) on Sunday afternoon in Tempe.
After three sets, head coach Sanja Tomasevic made the switch to put sophomore Geli Cyr at libero instead of senior Annika Larson-Nummer. After the game, Tomasevic explained why she made the change.
“We couldn’t pass. Geli is our best passer,” Tomasevic said. “It’s not like she is a dominant force at the net. Let’s relieve people in the back row from passing by putting her as the libero, and I thought she did a great job.”
The Sun Devils’ offense was led by senior Iman Isanovic. She led the team with 21 kills and a hitting percentage of 30.4%. She talked about the team’s preparation during the week and how it paid off for her.
“At the end of the day, you can never control what the other team does,” Isanovic said. “I think a big emphasis of ours was trying to compete and be competitive as a team.”
On the defensive side, the Sun Devils tallied 15 blocks. Claudia Stahlke led the team with nine blocks, and after the loss, Tomasevic talked about her impact.
“Claudia has always been our blocker. That’s her forte. That’s her job on our team,” Tomasevic said.
ASU started the match strong by winning the opening set. On defense, the Sun Devils out-blocked the Huskies 5-1 and relied on their serves. Tomasevic said that their serving was awesome in the first set, but struggled after that.
The Huskies rebounded to win the next two sets convincingly. Then, Tomasevic put Cyr at libero to replace Larson-Nummer. The decision paid off and the Sun Devils were able to win a back-and-forth battle to force a fifth set.
“I think it was very important for us to be there for her,” Isanovic said. “But overall I think that Geli did a great job.”
In the fourth set, the Huskies held a 19-16 lead. The Sun Devils won seven of the next eight points to take a 23-20. Washington forced a tie at 24 off a kill from Marin Grote. Two points later, the Huskies committed a service error, giving ASU another game point. On that point, Grote’s attack was blocked by Claire Jeter and Roberta Rabelo allowing ASU to tie the match and force a winner-take-all fifth set.
“I think it’s just a game of momentum. I think that at the end of the fourth set we were not done and we wanted to push it,” Tomasevic said.
In the fifth set, the Huskies came out strong and never looked back to claim the victory. Claire Hoffman led Washington with 26 kills, and tied for the team lead with 14 digs. After the game, Tomasevic spoke about Hoffman’s impact.
“She’s a good player. I love how smart she plays,” Tomasevic said. “I don’t think we did a good job against her today. I thought she went off against us.”
“I thought the fifth set was definitely an underperformance and we need to be better,” Tomasevic said. “We got three kills in 18 attempts and it’s tough to win a game when you get only three kills.”
This loss marks the fifth in a row for the Sun Devils, and they will look to get back on the winning side in their next game against Stanford on Thursday, November 13. Arizona State will finish its season with a pair of home games on Nov. 23 and 26 against the Utah Utes and Arizona Wildcats.
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