Nov. 3, 2012
TEMPE, Ariz. - Arizona State volleyball (16-11, 5-9 Pac-12) fell in four sets to No. 5 UCLA (18-5, 10-4 Pac-12) on Saturday night. Despite going down in set scores of 21-25, 14-25, 26-24, 16-25, Macey Gardner tied the freshman season kill record of 475 with her 15 kill outing.
Along with tying the freshman season kill record, Gardner posted her 10th double-double of the season with 15 kills and 12 digs. Erica Wilson had 12 kills and Allison Palmer put up 40 assists.
After trading the lead through three ties, Arizona State gained control, 10-7, after a trio of kills from freshmen Macey Gardner and Whitney Follette. Sun Devil blocking enabled the team to keep within reach of UCLA at 16-18 and then 19-20, but a service ace by the Bruins at 20-23 gave UCLA a boost to take the first set 21-25.
With the Bruins leading 6-12 in the second set, the Sun Devils tried to break UCLA's momentum with a timeout but UCLA used a nine-point streak to stretch its advantage to 6-18 before ASU stopped the scoring spree. Unable to rally a comeback, Arizona State fell 14-25 to head into the intermission down 2-0.
The third set featured the teams tying through the first six points before Alexis Pinson went off for three kills to bump ASU to a 10-8 lead. UCLA called a timeout when the Sun Devils went up 15-11 and the Bruins came out of the break to knot it up at 17-all. Following six ties, ASU battled with a block from Allison Palmer and Follette followed by a kill from Erica Wilson to close out the frame 26-24 on a .257 hitting clip.
A 9-3 Bruins run in the fourth gave UCLA a 13-18 jump on the set. Five kills by Gardner in the set allowed the outside hitter to tie the freshman season kill record of 475, set in 1992 by Christine Garner. The mark also ties her for ninth in the single-season ASU records. UCLA made quick work of the remainder of the set, finishing the match in four, 16-25.
Tough night but lots of great things happened this weekend thesundevils.com/sports/w-volle... @asu @thesundevils
— Sun Devil Volleyball (@SunDevilVB) November 4, 2012
Notes
Stephanie Preach is now sixth all-time in career digs with 1296 after recording 19 in Friday's match against USC. Including her digs against UCLA, she is sixth with a total of 1312.
Macey Gardner put her name in ASU's single-season kill records, ranking 10th with 460 on the year after 13 kills against USC. After her 15 kills against UCLA, she has 475 on the year and moved to tie for ninth in single-season kill records and tie the freshmen season high in kills (475), set in 1992 by Christine Garner. She needs just two additional kills to tie for eighth for single season marks.
Gardner has a team best 10 double-doubles on the year. Four of those have come in Pac-12 matches which were also against ranked conference foe.
Weekend Notes
After going ahead 2-0 into intermission against USC, ASU is now 8-1 on the year when leading 2-0 to start.
Prior to Friday's sweep of No. 6 USC, the last time ASU beat a ranked team was Nov. 24, 2010 at No. 2 California, winning 3-2.
The sweep against USC is ASU's eighth of the season, the most for the program since it had nine in 2007 and the most under head coach Jason Watson.
Against ranked opponents, ASU has grabbed six under the direction of Jason Watson including the 3-0 win against USC tonight. The most in a single-season under Watson was 2010, with three.
Should the win against USC boost ASU into the national rankings, it would be the first time the program has been ranked since Nov. 4, 2002 when it was No. 23 nationally with then-head coach Patti Snyder-Park.
Up Next
ASU travels to Oregon State and Oregon for early matches next week on Thursday and Friday. Thursday's match at Oregon State is on the Pac-12 Network at 7 p.m. ASU finishes the week early with an 8 p.m. match against Oregon on Friday.