For the first time since 1993, the No. 21 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils swept the No. 3 ranked Stanford Cardinal Sunday at Mullett Arena. This is the second win against a national top-5 ranked opponent this season for the 21-3 Sun Devils, as they previously beat then No. 5 Oregon.
It was redemption time for the Sun Devils as they were swept at Stanford on September 29, marking their first loss of the season. In the previous meeting between the two teams, ASU was held to a .125 hitting percentage, where today the roles flipped as the Devils held the Cardinal to their lowest hitting percentage of the year at .194.
“Our block was pretty disciplined,” ASU senior opposite hitter Marta Levinska said. “They tried to go for our hands and a lot of times that makes them go out.”
Following their loss to Colorado, the team honed in on their errors and fixed it coming into this match.
“All week we worked really hard on out of system defense. I think when our block is there it is so much easier to play defense behind them,” graduate student libero Mary Shroll said.
Shroll and Levinska led the Sun Devils in digs with 12 each, followed by graduate student setter Shannon Shields at eight.
“We wanted to be relentless and be gritty and having that mindset really showed,” Shroll said.
Mullett Arena was packed with fans, as head coach JJ Van Niel seems to have turned around the program after they went 13-19 last season. There is a big argument for home court advantage as the team has played up the road in Desert Financial Arena the past years with most teams being used to the environment.
“I mean that’s the beauty of having a home court advantage. This place is really fun, the crowd is popping,” Van Niel said.
The Sun Devils finished the game with 41 kills, six aces, and six blocks while Levinska led the team with 17 kills.
They will then travel this weekend to California to take on UCLA Friday before traveling down to take on USC Sunday. They swept the Bruins at home before beating the Trojans in five sets.
ASU still has many games to go, but their toughest matchup of the season will be when they travel up to Washington State on November 22. The current sixth-ranked Cougars have a familiar face on their roster in previous Sun Devil outside Iman Isanovic, who transferred following the departure of Sanja Tomasevic. Isanovic led the team in kills with 421 last season and is currently in second for the Cougars with 246.
“We can play against any team in this country, and I think this proves that,” Levinska said.
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