Nov. 22, 2012
SEATTLE, Wash. - In the final road match of the regular season for Arizona State volleyball (19-3, 8-11 Pac-12), the Sun Devils upset No. 5 Washington (22-6, 13-6) in four sets: 25-19, 16-25, 25-23, 25-20.
Led by 19 kills from Macey Gardner and 46 assists from Allison Palmer, ASU has now beaten two ranked opponents this season.
Friday vs. Arizona, 6 p.m. MT *Senior Night*
TV: Pac-12 Network
Blaze Radio online, here
Twitter: @SunDevilVB
Arizona State opened the match 2-0 with a kill from Nora Tuioti-Mariner and an ace by Caitlyn Francis. After that the Huskies woke up to tie it seven times but ASU built a three-point advantage to force UW into a timeout at 11-8. With its second lead of four, 14-10, the Sun Devils held their clip despite a spurt by UW to close the gap 15-14. The Huskies burned their second timeout at 17-14 and ASU responded to go up 22-17 en route to taking the frame 25-19 and out-blocking UW 4-0.
In the second ASU led 4-2, but as UW went on an eight-point run the Sun Devils were digging themselves out of a hole at 8-13. With ASU on a streak of four-consecutive points, Washington called its second timeout at 15-19. UW rolled on for the final points, 16-25, to even the match at 1-1.
Coming out of intermission, the Devils already had more kills to start the third than in the entire second frame. Behind an offensive effort of four hitters, ASU tied it seven times by the 10-10 mark, with Gardner leading the offense for the night on 11 kills. Still trailing, ASU took timeouts at 15-18 and 17-20 and were itching to catch up and did just that late in the set 22-23. Washington took back-to-back timeouts and Gardner's block solo tied it at 23-all to give the advantage to ASU as the Huskies sat with only one sub left for their rotation. The final three points went to the Sun Devils with kills from Gardner and Tuioti-Mariner, 25-23, to put ASU ahead in the match 2-1.
Upset No.5 Washington and wk isnt over yet. Be at Wells Fargo Arena for senior night vs. Arizona! thesundevils.com/sports/w-volle... @asu @thesundevils
-- Sun Devil Volleyball (@SunDevilVB) November 22, 2012
Arizona State kept its momentum heading into the fourth set, opening with a 6-3 lead. Washington was quick to respond and tie it at 6-6 before ASU slammed its way back into a 10-8 advantage. The Sun Devils rattled off four straight to prompt a UW timeout at 14-11 then followed with a timeout of their own after falling behind 16-17. Things got close at 20-all but ASU came up with the last five points in dramatic fashion to pull off the upset, 25-20 and take the match in four, 3-1.
Congrats to @sundevilvb on their upset win over No. 5 Washington! #SunDevilPride
-- ASU_Baseball (@ASU_Baseball) November 22, 2012
Notes
Macey Gardner's 19 kills led both squads.
ASU is now 20-37 against Washington dating back to 1982. This is the first win against Washington since 2004 and the first win in Seattle since 2002.
This is the second time ASU had beaten a ranked opponent this season, the first being a sweep of No. 6 USC on Nov. 2 in Tempe.
This is the first ranked opponent ASU has beaten on the road since upsetting No. 2 Cal, 3-2, on Nov. 24, 2010.
Jason Watson has grabbed seven wins against ranked opponents in his five years at ASU. The most wins vs. ranked teams in a single season under Watson was 2010, with three.
ASU's 19 wins leading into its final regular season match on Friday is the most under Jason Watson.
This is the most victories for the program since it went 19-8 in 1995 - a team that went to the Sweet 16 under Patti Snyder-Park.
This is the most conference wins for ASU since 2002, that team went 15-12 overall and 8-10 in the Pac-10 and finished its season with an appearance in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Erica Wilson is six blocks shy of tying for seventh in career blocks. She ranks 12th in career kills with 1093.
Stephanie Preach is 17 shy of tying for fourth in career digs with 1439. She ranks fifth all-time at ASU. She also jumps to sixth in single-season digs with 581.
Macey Gardner needs seven kills to tie for second in single-season kills records. Has 548.
Allison Palmer has 1380 assists and needs just 33 to tie for fourth in single-season marks.
Alexis Pinson needs just one more block to tie for ninth in season blocks with 106.
Another day of upsets in @pac12 vb.@sundevilvb upsets @uwvolleyball @wsucougars_com hurts @arizonavball chance of postseason #vbscores
-- Anne Marie Anderson (@AnneMAnderson) November 22, 2012
Up Next
The Sun Devils host Arizona on Friday for Senior Night at 6 p.m. in Wells Fargo Arena. ASU Athletics will honor Sarah Clause and Erica Wilson on the court before the 6 p.m. start time. Tickets are still available and if you wear gold, you will receive $3 admission!
Senior Night
Arizona State has two seniors on the 2012 roster: Sarah Clause and Erica Wilson. Friday night's match represents the final home contest for Sarah and Erica.
Sarah Clause: Played for the Sun Devils in 2011 after transferring from Long Beach State. During her senior season, Sarah redshirted due to injury but still contributed as a vocal leader on the bench. Her best stats as a Sun Devil have come against this week's opponents, posting five kills at Arizona in 2011 and three digs against Washington also in 2011.
Erica Wilson: Erica has had a tremendous season for ASU, starting her senior campaign off with MVP honors at UTEP's tournament and being named to KU's All-Tournament Team. Coming into her final weekend as a Sun Devil, Erica's name sprinkles the ASU record book in seven categories and is one of only 15 Sun Devils to record over 1,000 career kills. She currently has 1,082.
Marketing Promotions (Friday)
Senior Night: Come support volleyball seniors Sarah Clause and Erica Wilson in their last home game as Sun Devils.
Special Olympics: The Arizona Special Olympics will be attending this match and playing a scrimmage between the second and third sets.
Selection Show
The NCAA Tournament selection show is Sunday, Nov. 25 at 4 p.m. ET on ESPNU. For more information about the selection show, visit the NCAA website here.