Nov. 12, 2011
TEMPE, Ariz. – The Arizona State volleyball team finished their longest home stand of the season with a tough win over the Utah Utes. The Devils rise to 8-19 on the season and 4-14 in Pac-12 play with the 3-2 win, which had a final score of 28-26, 22-25, 19-25, 25-17, 15-13.
Ashley Kastl saw an impressive 27 kills on the night out of ASU’s 66 total. Nora Tuioti-Mariner notched a double-double with 19 kills and 13 digs, and Erica Wilson recorded 12 kills on the night.
On defense, the Devils had 8.5 blocks in comparison to Utah’s 17.0, with six separate ASU players seeing two block assists each. Sonja Markanovich and Alexis Pinson each had one solo block. Shannan McCready had 56 assists on 168 attempts as well as 14 digs, and Stephanie Preach had the team-high 38 digs.
The Utes and Devils battles relentlessly through the first set with 13 tie scores and eight lead changes. Both teams saw nine attack errors and ASU hit 53% to Utah’s 50% to push the set into extra points, finishing 28-26 on a setting error from Utah’s Abby Simmons and then a kill from Tuioti-Mariner.
The second set proved to be almost as difficult as the first as both teams remained strikingly similar in attacks, with 13 for Utah and 14 for A-State. Kastl pulled ahead with a .455 average through the set on seven kills, but Chelsey Schofield’s six kills and the team’s five collective blocks led Utah to take the set 25-22.
Momentum carried through to the next game for the Utes, although the score remained close halfway through. Utah began pulling away after three consecutive attack errors from the Devils and soon after three consecutive Utah kills. ASU saw zero blocks through the set as Utah snagged the third set 25-19.
The Devils came charging into the fourth game, and the Utes only took the lead once before A-State began pushing hard to lead by as many as six points. The lead stayed consistent throughout the rest set as ASU saw 17 kills to Utah’s eight, and the Devils hit 72% as they held the Utes to only 50%. A-State gained the set 25-17 to tie the score up at two sets each.
Fans were on their feet through the entire fifth match, where the largest lead was only three points by the Devils. After a kill from Schofield and an attack error from Pinson, the Devils nabbed a kill from Tuioti-Mariner and an attack error from Morgan Odale to grab the set 15-13, and the overall victory.
The Devils travel to the West Coast next weekend to face USC and UCLA with action starting against the Trojans on Friday night at 7 p.m. MT.
By Kyra Geithman, Media Relations Assistant