Sept. 24, 2010
TEMPE, Ariz. – Showing an immense amount of heart and grit, the ASU Volleyball team opened Pac-10 play Friday night taking on the No. 1 Stanford Cardinal who entered the night with a flawless 9-0 record. In the end the Cardinal prevailed but not without a fight as they Sun Devils fell in a tough 25-23, 27-25, 23-25 and 25-21 loss to a Cardinal team who had only lost three sets this season. The Sun Devils are now 5-8 on the year and 0-1 in Pac-10 play as Stanford marches on to a 10-0 record and 1-0 Pac-10 start.
The Sun Devils rocked the Cardinals off their heels a bit in the first set as they came out ready to play where they pushed 11 tie scores and three lead changes in the set, making Stanford step their game up as Sarah Reaves put six kills on the floor while the team behind her posted four blocks. Alix Klineman carried the brunt of the Stanford effort Friday night throughout, posting seven kills in Stanford’s 25-23 first set win.
Stanford may have been looking to settle in after the first set win though the Sun Devils had other plans in mind, shutting down nearly every attacker outside of Klineman who again had to make the difference this time stepping up for an amazing 12 kills in the set which Stanford needed extra points to put away 27-25 to head into the break 2-0.
The third proved to be a charm for the Sun Devils as the middles held at the net for three blocks and forced seven attack errors that proved to be the difference maker In the set. Cat Highmark looked confident in setting her middles, leaning on Sonja Markanovich in the set to blast five kills to lead ASU and bewilder Stanford. While the Cardinal battled hard, it wasn’t enough as ASU took a 25-23 win in the third set, snapping a six year drought against Stanford who has won in straight sets the last 12 match-ups.
ASU came out to hit .310 in the fourth set, showing they meant business as Sarah Reaves got up to get down eight kills for a .350 attack percentage to buoy the attack. In the end though the Cardinals made a few less errors to capitalize on mistakes to nudge away with a 25-21 win.
In addition in the match, Sarah Reaves also collected 23 kills, which moved her into fourth place in ASU career kills with 1,526. She surpasses Valentina Vega with 72 kills needed to surpass the 2010 ASU Hall of Fame inductee who was honored at tonight's match, Amanda Burbridge.
Head Coach Jason Watson commented on the match saying “I’m extremely proud of this team and their performance and level of competition tonight. They’ve taken everything we’ve tried to instill in them in terms of confidence and execution and translated it to their actions on the court. They left it all out there and made an excellent Stanford team work for every point they got tonight.”
The Sun Devils will now host the No. 8 Cal Golden Bears Sunday as Pac-10 play continues. The match is set to tip-off at 12:30 p.m. in Tempe at ASU’s Wells Fargo Arena.