No. 13 Arizona State (18-2, 8-1 Big 12) pushed its winning streak to six after a dominant 3-0 sweep over the Colorado Buffaloes (10-9, 3-4 Big 12) on Friday night.
The Sun Devils’ offense was on fire as they shot over 40% on their kills and totaled nine aces through the match.
“A really fun crowd tonight in Mullett, and it’s always good playing in front of a big crowd,” said head coach JJ Van Niel. “I’ll always open talking about that because we love playing in front of a big crowd.”
The Sun Devils improved to 8-0 at home on the season and played their fifth match with more than 3,000 fans in attendance.
With last week’s win against the Arizona Wildcats, the Sun Devils have now won 11 straight sets with three straight sweeps.
In the first set against the Buffs, graduate student outside hitter Shania Cromartie set the tone. Cromartie had seven kills and a block. Cromartie led the Sun Devils to a 25-22 set victory over the Buffaloes to take a 1-0 lead.
Cromartie wasn’t the only leading Sun Devils, as senior outside hitter Geli Cyr also had four kills and eight digs in the first set.
In the third set, Cyr earned her fourth straight double-double on the season after scoring five more kills while totaling two blocks. Cyr ended the night with 14 kills, 11 digs and two blocks. Cyr now has nine double-doubles on the season.
“As I’ve mentioned, she’s worked really hard, and I think she has come a long way, and she’s got a very high IQ and does a lot of things for us,” said Van Niel. “So it’s nice having her out there.”
Cyr now has 244 kills on the season which is the fifth most in the Big 12 conference.
The Sun Devils’ offense rolled in the second set. They ended the set on a 12-4 run and took the set 25-16. Redshirt freshman setter Brynn Covell scored three aces. Cyr added five more kills and three digs.
The Sun Devils’ offense shot well over 50% on its kills; they had 14 on 23 attempts in the set. With an obvious dominant offense, the Sun Devils were able to take an early lead 9-0 run in the third set, carrying them to a 25-21 set victory to win the match.
The Sun Devils scored four aces in the set, sophomore outside hitter Jillian Neal had three and junior libero Estella Zatechka had one. Neal also scored a kill.
Graduate student setter Argentina Ung led the Sun Devils in assists on the night with 28 and was second in digs with nine. Ung shot a miraculous 77.8% and scored seven kills.
The Sun Devils will briefly suspend Big 12 play on Oct. 21 at 6:30 p.m. as they host Grand Canyon University (13-2, 6-2 WAC) at Mullet Arena.
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