Oct. 10, 2009
TEMPE, Ariz. – Even with double-doubles from Ashley Kastl and Sarah Reaves, a heartbreaking five set loss finished the weekend for the ASU Volleyball team Saturday night as they fell 25-23, 21-25, 20-25, 25-23 and 15-10 to the Oregon State Beavers. ASU is now 11-7 overall and 1-5 in conference play as OSU improves to 11-6 and 2-3 in the Pac-10.
Set one saw the Sun Devils show promise as they held an 18-13 lead in the set, but saw the Beavers surge from behind to make a game of it as they went on a seven point scoring spree to snake the lead from ASU with Jill Sawatzky taking the brunt of the work on with six kills out of OSU’s 19 to take a 25-23 win and the lead.
ASU wasn’t going away though as they stepped it up, hitting .262 in the set with freshman Ashley Kastl coming in to swing it for a team-leading five kills in the set while Cat Highmark assisted in the killing of 15 balls as ASU took set two 25-21 to tie it up headed into the break.
Things started looking up in set three as well as ASU blasted a .433 attack percentage while Sarah Reaves lit up the boards for seven kills while the Devil D hit the dance floor for 3.5 blocks to keep the Beavers quiet and take the lead with a 25-20 win.
Those feisty Beavers wouldn’t go away though as they posted a .255 attack percentage in the fourth set with three blocks while capitalizing on seven ASU attack errors to run off with a 25-23 win to tie it at two sets a apiece.
The fifth and deciding set was all OSU though as they came out of the gate swinging hitting .400 and rattling off seven straight points to cement the Sun Devils fate as ASU rallied, but fell short in a 15-10 heartbreaker.
Head Coach Jason Watson on the match said, “We battled hard tonight, that was a hard-earned match on both sides. We just need to play top tier volleyball for longer periods of time to finish off some of the great things we’re achieving on the court.”
Up next ASU hosts rival, Arizona, next Friday, Oct. 16 in Tempe at Wells Fargo Arena. The match starts at 7 p.m. and will be aired on Fox Sports West as well as being a Gold Game.