No. 13 Arizona State Sun Devils (15-2, 4-1 Big 12) earned their sixth straight home win of the season, winning in four sets (25-20, 23-25, 31-29, 25-15) against the Arizona Wildcats (12-4, 1-4 Big 12) at Desert Financial Arena on Wednesday night.
Senior outside hitter Geli Cyr was a dominant force for the Sun Devils, finishing the night with a career-high in kills of 23. This is the most by a Sun Devil this season. Cyr also had her third double-double of the year with 17 digs, matching her season high.
“Geli’s playing phenomenal right now she does it by being really crafty,” Van Niel said. “She’s really worked hard at her craft finding ways to score.”
Arizona State jumped out to an early 7-4 lead thanks to the high-speed attacking of Cyr and graduate student outside hitter Shania Cromartie, who had 12 kills. The Sun Devils’ tempo offense was on full display, with shoot sets to the outside and fast fifty-one sets in the middle, making it difficult for the Wildcats to defend against.
The Sun Devils had the benefit of playing in front of 4,630, the fourth-largest crowd in program history for volleyball. The players used this energy, and it was clear on the court that everyone was playing with some extra juice, feeding off the crowd noise.
“What an environment. Thank you to the fans. We love it,” ASU head coach JJ Van Niel said. “It means a lot to our team, and it really helps to have that home-court advantage.”
Arizona State continued to add to its lead 18-11 thanks to back-to-back kills from Cyr before taking the first set 25-20. Graduate student setter Argentina Ung had full command of the offense, tying her career-high in assists with 42 and earning a career-high 20 digs. This was Ung’s second time this season with 40 or more assists in a match.
“That was my first rivalry game here at ASU, and that was amazing,” said Ung.
The second set started even, 8-8, as Arizona adjusted its blocks and began to seal off the Sun Devil attackers. The Wildcats continued to hammer away, hitting line and far roll shots to the back of the court, putting the Sun Devils defense in a bind. Arizona took a 23-20 lead before closing out the set 25-23, evening things up one set a piece.
The Wildcats continued right where they left off, opening the third set leading 7-2. The momentum of the game completely changed, as the Sun Devils were left reeling and trying to go on a run to try to come back.
Arizona State was able to do just that as it scored six unanswered points to take an 8-7 lead. When it looked like the Sun Devils were losing control of the set their defense stepped up big time. Graduate student libero Mary Shroll had a season-high 32 digs. It was Shroll’s fifth match this season with 20-plus digs and her first surpassing 30.
“Knowing that we don’t have to do anything crazy,” Shroll said. “We just gotta play our game, keep digging balls, keep putting the pressure on.”
The third set was a testament to ASU’s mindset of never giving up and always stepping up to make the next play. The Sun Devils capitalized on great team defense to take a tightly contested third set 31-29.
Arizona State jumped out to a 12-7 lead in the fourth set and played very poised, looking to close out the Wildcats from having any chance of coming back. The Sun Devils did a nice job of keeping things simple, making accurate passes to the middle of the court, where Ung had all her options open to spread the ball around.
The Sun Devils continued to score points, and they found themselves leading 21-12. ASU finished strong, playing the fast brand of volleyball it had been playing the entire night, to take the fourth set 25-15.
The Sun Devils will look to get into the win column again this Saturday on the road against Texas Tech (9-7, 1-3 Big 12). Game time is set for 11 a.m. PST.
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