The No. 18 Arizona State Sun Devils swept the Arizona Wildcats 25-19, 25-22, 25-20 at McKale Center in Tucson on Saturday evening.
With its second sweep of Arizona this season, Arizona State wrapped up the regular season 26-6 overall and 14-6 in conference play. The Sun Devils finished third in the Pac-12 tied with Washington State.
The first set started close until the Sun Devils went on an 8-3 run to lead 12-7. This forced Arizona head coach Charita Stubbs to call her first timeout.
Arizona State built its advantage out of the break. Graduate student setter Shannon Shields had some dumps and senior outside hitter Roberta Rabelo had a block and kill. Stubbs called her team’s second timeout with the Sun Devils up 17-10.
While the Sun Devils were up 24-14, they failed to clinch the set. The Wildcats went on a 5-0 run which forced Arizona State coach JJ Van Niel to burn a timeout.
Shields set the ball out of the stoppage to senior middle blocker Claire Jeter. She registered the kill and gave her team a 1-0 match lead.
The Sun Devils burst to a 3-0 lead in the second set but the Wildcats answered with a 7-3 run before Van Niel called his first timeout of the set.
Arizona State found bursts of momentum and took a 19-16 lead which caused Arizona to take a timeout.
The visitors strengthened their lead and found themselves with six set points in hand. Like the first set, the Wildcats survived and forced Van Niel to burn a timeout with the Sun Devils up 24-21.
Despite a bad set from Shields, Arizona’s senior outside hitter Jaelyn Hodge committed an attacking error. This put the Sun Devils on the brink of victory.
The Sun Devils trailed early in the third set but swung momentum in their favor with an 11-5 run to make the score 18-14.
Graduate libero Mary Shroll had a service error on the first match point but junior outside hitter Geli Cyr finished the match.
The win gave the Sun Devils their first season sweep over their in-state rivals since 2019.
The Sun Devils dominated the Wildcats offensively.
The visitors logged 42 kills compared to the hosts’ 40. Arizona State held a .313 hitting percentage while Arizona finished at .189. They also won the ace battle 9-2.
Stubbs’ side narrowly won two defensive battles. They had six blocks while the Sun Devils had five. The hosts also recorded 39 digs while the visitors had 38.
The Wildcats also committed more errors. They had 24 while the Sun Devils made 19.
Senior outside hitter Marta Levinska continued her excellent season for the Sun Devils. She led her team in kills with 12. Jeter and Rabelo aided with eight kills of their own.
Arizona State had two players with multiple aces for the third consecutive match. Freshman outside hitter Jillian Neal had three and Shroll had two.
Shroll starred in the back row with 13 digs. Cyr followed her with 10. They were the only Sun Devils who registered double-digit digs.
Arizona State learned on Sunday that the squad had earned a No. 5 seed in the coming NCAA Tournament. The Sun Devils will face Georgia on Friday in Provo, Utah, as the region they were placed in is being hosted by BYU. It will be the first trip to the tournament since 2015.
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