No. 9 Arizona State (27-2, 15-1 Big 12) finished its last game in front of the Mullett Arena crowd in style, sweeping Iowa State (10-15, 4-10 Big 12) in three sets on Thursday night.
The Sun Devils started the night being gifted three of their first five points thanks to Cyclone’s missed serves. ASU would take an early 5-3 lead. Iowa State then responded with a couple of kills to tie things up 5-5. This had all the makings of a tightly contested match with both teams trading points.
“Phenomenal crowd tonight that was so cool thank you to all the fans that came out,” Van Niel said. “It makes such a difference for us when we play in front of the crowd.”
Arizona State would respond with a couple of kills of their own from graduate student outside hitter Roberta Rabelo and graduate student middle blocker Claire Jeter as the Sun Devils took an 11-10 lead.
Graduate student setter Argentina Ung had a strong connection with her hitters throughout the night tallying 37 assists. One of those hitters included Graduate student middle blocker Savannah Kjolhede who finished with a team-high 10 kills. Along with senior outside hitter Geli Cyr who finished with nine.
“She’s a really awesome setter to work with,” Kjolhede said. “She listens and gives me a ton of feedback.”
It was this kind of offensive production that was the reason Arizona State would hold on to a hard-fought first set 25-21. The intensity picked right back up in the second set with both teams knotted up 9-9. The Cyclones did a nice job of crashing the middle of the court on defense trying to pick up anything ASU threw at them.
“That’s a really scrappy team they have really good defenders,” Van Niel said. “They have some injuries and we knew they were going to dig a bunch of balls.”
ASU then went on a four-point run thanks to a couple of kills from Jeter and a kill from Cyr to take a 12-9 lead. Defensively Arizona State was led by graduate student libero Mary Shroll and graduate student outside hitter Shania Cromartie who each had 14 digs, along with Kjolhede who generated eight blocks.
The Sun Devils would start to run away with the second set leading 20-12 before ending the set with three straight kills from Kjolhede, Cromartie, and Jeter to take it 25-15. ASU went into the third set feeling confident looking to secure the win to remain undefeated at Mullet Arena for the 2024-2025 season.
Arizona State jumped out to an early 7-3 lead to start the third set and it appeared as if they might run away with the game. The Cyclones quickly responded with three points of their own now only trailing 6-7. Both teams continued to trade points with the third set evened up once again this time 16-16.
ASU was finally able to gain some separation and hold on to the third set 25-22 to complete the sweep of Iowa State. While it certainly wasn’t one of the Sun Devils trademark wins it showed the kind of culture Van Niel has built and the belief and confidence in all the players that they can win any game.
The Sun Devils will look to earn their last road win of the season as they take on Colorado (12-15, 5-10 Big 12) this Saturday with game time set for 12:00 p.m.
Leave a Reply