It was a historic night in a remarkable season for the Arizona State Sun Devils. They made their first NCAA Regional Semifinal appearance since 1995 and faced their last Pac-12 opponent in the Stanford Cardinal.
It also was their final match of a magical season under first-year head coach JJ Van Niel. The No. 5 seed Sun Devils lost their rubber match to the No. 1 seed Cardinal 25-22, 21-25, 20-25, 21-25 at Maples Pavillion in Palo Alto on Thursday night.
“They were just a little bit better on serving, and they were a little bit better at passing, and they deserved to beat us,” Van Niel said about Stanford. “They were the better team tonight.”
Both sides played sloppy in the first set, with the Sun Devils being the cleaner side. They had six errors in the opening frame while the Cardinal had 12.
Fifth-year opposite Kendall Kipp led the charge for the hosts, as she finished the first set with 10 kills. Kipp only had six in the match when the Sun Devils swept the Cardinal at Mullett Arena in October.
The two in-conference foes remained close in the first set until Arizona State won two consecutive points off a junior outside hitter Geli Cyr kill and a Cardinal attack error, causing Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly to burn a timeout. The Sun Devils took the next two points out of the break to force set point up 24-20.
While the hosts halved the set lead, the Sun Devils took a 1-0 match lead off a Cyr kill, as she nestled the ball into the back right corner to win the opening frame 25-22.
The Pac-12 regular season champions polished their play in the second set, holding a 4-0 advantage early. While the Sun Devils stormed back to lead 11-10, the Cardinal answered with a 3-0 run to make it 13-11. Van Niel was forced to burn his team’s first timeout of the set.
After Arizona State equalized the set at 17, Stanford followed with a 4-1 run.
The Cardinal held that advantage, winning Set 2 25-21 from a kill by junior middle blocker Sami Francis. She pushed the ball beyond the reach of many Sun Devils to tie the match at one apiece.
While the team from Tempe held a lead early in Set 3, it slipped away as the Cardinal went on a 5-1 run to lead 15-11 at the media timeout.
Stanford did not squander the lead. The Cardinal pushed the Sun Devils to the brink of elimination with a 25-20 set win. The set was clinched off sophomore outside hitter Elia Rubin’s 15th kill of the night.
Hambly’s side started the fourth set 1-1, but thrust themselves into the lead for the rest of that fourth set, up 11-8 before Arizona State’s first timeout of the set.
While Stanford thought they were on the way to victory up 23-16, Arizona State pulled a 5-0 run. Hambly called a timeout so his team could regroup.
Out of the stoppage, the Cardinal took advantage in the serving game. First, they won a point from Arizona State’s graduate student libero Mary Shroll’s service error. Second, Kipp had a game-winning ace for the Cardinal to get the 25-21 set win and the match.
Two Stanford attackers dominated the match. Kipp registered a season-high 23 kills with Rubin coming in second with 19. Junior setter Kami Miner had 53 assists.
Senior outside hitter Marta Levinska led the Sun Devils with 17 kills, matching her totals from the last two matches. She wrapped up the year with 571 kills, the fourth most by a Sun Devil in a season. Cyr was second in the match with 16.
Graduate student setter Shannon Shields registered 38 assists.
Shroll shined on the back line. She had a season-high 30 digs, her highest since joining the Sun Devils ahead of this season.
“She was flying all over, keeping us in rallies,” Van Niel said. “It was really fun. It’s probably her best defensive match by far.”
Arizona State finishes the year 28-7 with a loss. That is the best record in a head coach’s first season with the Sun Devils since 1973, the program’s inaugural season. They won the AIAW Championship that year.
Van Niel said he commends this year’s squad for making his first year as a head coach memorable.
“It’s a really special group and I’m beyond proud of them,” he said. “They represented us well, they represented Arizona well, the university well, and themselves. I couldn’t be more proud of them and of this group.”
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