The No. 18 Arizona State Sun Devils defeated the Oregon State Beavers in four sets (30-28, 25-13, 21-25, 25-23) Sunday afternoon at Desert Financial Arena.
With the win, they move to 25-5 and 13-5 in conference play. The win moved the Sun Devils to 9-1 at home. They split the series with Oregon State after the Beavers took the first match in Corvallis earlier this year in five sets.
“Any Pac-12 win is a good win,” Arizona State head coach JJ Van Niel said. “I think Oregon State is arguably one of the scariest teams we are ever going to play.”
Before the match, the Sun Devils gifted each Oregon State senior with a rose before a montage video played on the jumbotron to honor Arizona State’s seniors. Van Niel’s seniors were then recognized on the court alongside their family members. He gifted each senior with a jersey with her respective number.
Some seniors were emotional during the pregame festivities. Others, like setter Shannon Shields, remained calm because there are still many games ahead.
“I feel like we are going to go so far in this [NCAA] tournament,” Shields said. “We still have two in-season matches left. But, I’m excited to see what we can do at the end of this season.”
The match started sloppy on both sides. The hosts had nine errors in the first set while the visitors had 10.
The Sun Devils maintained a 22-19 advantage. But Oregon State went on a 6-2 run to force set point up 25-24.
Arizona State took the next two points. While the Sun Devils failed to close out the set three times, they took advantage on the fourth opportunity, winning the set 30-28 off a bad set.
The Sun Devils controlled all momentum in the second set as they doubled their match lead. They forced Beavers head coach Lindsey Behonick to burn her team’s first timeout as the Sun Devils took a 6-1 lead. She then burned Oregon State’s second timeout when the hosts made the score 14-6.
Arizona State maintained its strong advantage towards the end of the set, taking the set 25-13 from an Oregon State service error.
The Beavers responded early in the third set, grabbing a 7-2 lead before Van Niel burned his first timeout. They would maintain the advantage, en route to a gritty 25-21 set win. The Beavers halved the Sun Devils’ match lead off an attacking error from the hosts.
“They are super scrappy,” senior outside hitter Marta Levinska said. “They don’t let the tips fall, I’ve heard their coach say ‘no tips fall,’ and that’s what they tried to do. I think sometimes it gets frustrating, because sometimes you have a good swing, and they dig it.”
Van Niel’s side answered in the fourth set. The largest lead of the set was an early three-point advantage by the Sun Devils.
With the score tied 23-23, junior outside hitter Geli Cyr logged the next two kills to give the Sun Devils the victory in their final home game of the regular season.
Three Sun Devils ended the day with double-digit kill totals. Levinska had 18, Cyr had 12, and senior middle blocker Claire Jeter had 10.
The same was true with dig totals. Shields had 14, Cyr had 13, and graduate libero Mary Shroll had 11.
The Sun Devils can beat every team in the conference when they visit the Washington State Cougars (22-7 overall, 12-6 in Pac-12) Wednesday.
Then, they will wrap up the regular season on the road against the Arizona Wildcats (8-21 overall, 3-15 in Pac-12).
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