TEMPE, Ariz. – The Arizona State volleyball team (10-4, 0-2 Pac-12) put up a tough fight against No. 7 Washington (11-1, 1-0 Pac-12), battling the Huskies to five sets but ultimately falling, 25-22, 25-17, 17-25, 17-25, 10-15, on Sunday afternoon in Wells Fargo Arena.
"The cool thing is that now we see what we're capable of," said head coach Sanja Tomasevic. "We always talk about improving a little bit every day, and after we lost to Arizona on Thursday we got in the gym the next day, watch film and worked on certain things trying to improve. We always talk about improving one percent every day in practice and trying to get one percent better. We got better since Thursday and that showed today in parts of the game."
Oluoma Okaro was a bright spot in the Sun Devil's offense, recording a career high 30 kills on .414 attacking. The senior's 30 kills tie for the most kills in a single match for a Sun Devil in the rally scoring era (since 2001) with current assistant coach Macey Gardner (9/24/14 at Arizona) and former standout Sarah Reaves (9/20/08 vs. W. Kentucky). Okaro now holds the season best mark for kills in the Pac-12 Conference, surpassing Stanford's Kathryn Plummer's 27 kills from Sept. 1. Okaro has posted double-digit kills in 13 of the 14 matches this season.
"I think Oly was steady throughout the whole match," said Tomasevic. "She was good. Maybe we could have set her even more. There was a point where I was like 'Just give the ball to Oly' because she was on fire today and I think Washington had a really hard time stopping her."
Okaro also posted 17 digs for her fifth double-double of the season.
Sophomore setter Nicole Peterson recorded a career high 51 assists and added 12 digs for her third career double-double and her second this season. Sophomore Ivana Jeremic had 11 kills and 10 digs for her second double-double of the season. Freshman Griere Hughes added 12 kills for the Sun Devils.
Senior Halle Harker notched 23 digs, amounting to 1,677 career digs to her name. Her mark remains the third-best in program history.
For the Huskies, Carly DeHoog posted 13 kills while Courtney Schwan added 11.
Up next, the Sun Devils have a short week as they hit the road for the first time in conference play to take on the defending National Champions, No. 4 Stanford Cardinal (9-2, 2-0 Pac-12) on Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. PT and the California Bears (9-4, 0-2 Pac-12) on Friday, Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. PT. Wednesday's game will be broadcasted on the Pac-12 Network.
Match Notes
Kills: Okaro (30), Hughes (12), Jeremic (11)
Attacking Percentage: Okaro (.414; 30 K, 6 E, 58 A)
Digs: Harker (23), Okaro (17), Peterson (12), Leffel (11), Jeremic (10)
Assists: Peterson (51)
Double-Doubles: Okaro (5th, 30 kills and 17 digs), Jeremic (2nd, 11 kills and 10 digs), Peterson (2nd, 51 assists and 12 digs)
Blocks: Okaro (4; 3 BS, 1 BA)
ASU Single-Match Kills (Rally Scoring Era)
1. Oluoma Okaro (9/24/17 vs. Washington) – 30
Macey Gardner (9/24/14 at Arizona) – 30
Sarah Reaves (9/20/08 vs. W. Kentucky) – 30
4. Macey Gardner (11/21/14 at WSU) – 29
Macey Gardner (10/24/13 at Utah) – 29
6. Macey Gardner (11/15/14 vs. Oregon) – 28
Macey Gardner (8/31/12 at UC Irvine) – 28
Sarah Reaves (9/27/07 vs. Oregon) – 28
9. Macey Gardner (9/26/14 at USC) – 27
Macey Gardner (12/6/13 vs. BYU) – 27
Macey Gardner (9/30/12 vs. Stanford) – 27
Ashley Kastl (11/12/11 vs. Utah) – 27
Ashley Kastl (11/4/11 vs. Oregon) – 27
Juliana Escobar (10/18/02 at Oregon) – 27
ASU Career Digs Leaders
1. Sydney Donahue, 2004-07 – 2385
2. Stephanie Preach, 2010-13 – 2010
3. Halle Harker, 2014-present – 1677
4. Christy Nore, 1985-88 – 1597
5. Jami Coughlin, 1998-2001 – 1528
"The cool thing is that now we see what we're capable of," said head coach Sanja Tomasevic. "We always talk about improving a little bit every day, and after we lost to Arizona on Thursday we got in the gym the next day, watch film and worked on certain things trying to improve. We always talk about improving one percent every day in practice and trying to get one percent better. We got better since Thursday and that showed today in parts of the game."
Oluoma Okaro was a bright spot in the Sun Devil's offense, recording a career high 30 kills on .414 attacking. The senior's 30 kills tie for the most kills in a single match for a Sun Devil in the rally scoring era (since 2001) with current assistant coach Macey Gardner (9/24/14 at Arizona) and former standout Sarah Reaves (9/20/08 vs. W. Kentucky). Okaro now holds the season best mark for kills in the Pac-12 Conference, surpassing Stanford's Kathryn Plummer's 27 kills from Sept. 1. Okaro has posted double-digit kills in 13 of the 14 matches this season.
"I think Oly was steady throughout the whole match," said Tomasevic. "She was good. Maybe we could have set her even more. There was a point where I was like 'Just give the ball to Oly' because she was on fire today and I think Washington had a really hard time stopping her."
Okaro also posted 17 digs for her fifth double-double of the season.
Sophomore setter Nicole Peterson recorded a career high 51 assists and added 12 digs for her third career double-double and her second this season. Sophomore Ivana Jeremic had 11 kills and 10 digs for her second double-double of the season. Freshman Griere Hughes added 12 kills for the Sun Devils.
Senior Halle Harker notched 23 digs, amounting to 1,677 career digs to her name. Her mark remains the third-best in program history.
For the Huskies, Carly DeHoog posted 13 kills while Courtney Schwan added 11.
Up next, the Sun Devils have a short week as they hit the road for the first time in conference play to take on the defending National Champions, No. 4 Stanford Cardinal (9-2, 2-0 Pac-12) on Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. PT and the California Bears (9-4, 0-2 Pac-12) on Friday, Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. PT. Wednesday's game will be broadcasted on the Pac-12 Network.
Match Notes
Kills: Okaro (30), Hughes (12), Jeremic (11)
Attacking Percentage: Okaro (.414; 30 K, 6 E, 58 A)
Digs: Harker (23), Okaro (17), Peterson (12), Leffel (11), Jeremic (10)
Assists: Peterson (51)
Double-Doubles: Okaro (5th, 30 kills and 17 digs), Jeremic (2nd, 11 kills and 10 digs), Peterson (2nd, 51 assists and 12 digs)
Blocks: Okaro (4; 3 BS, 1 BA)
ASU Single-Match Kills (Rally Scoring Era)
1. Oluoma Okaro (9/24/17 vs. Washington) – 30
Macey Gardner (9/24/14 at Arizona) – 30
Sarah Reaves (9/20/08 vs. W. Kentucky) – 30
4. Macey Gardner (11/21/14 at WSU) – 29
Macey Gardner (10/24/13 at Utah) – 29
6. Macey Gardner (11/15/14 vs. Oregon) – 28
Macey Gardner (8/31/12 at UC Irvine) – 28
Sarah Reaves (9/27/07 vs. Oregon) – 28
9. Macey Gardner (9/26/14 at USC) – 27
Macey Gardner (12/6/13 vs. BYU) – 27
Macey Gardner (9/30/12 vs. Stanford) – 27
Ashley Kastl (11/12/11 vs. Utah) – 27
Ashley Kastl (11/4/11 vs. Oregon) – 27
Juliana Escobar (10/18/02 at Oregon) – 27
ASU Career Digs Leaders
1. Sydney Donahue, 2004-07 – 2385
2. Stephanie Preach, 2010-13 – 2010
3. Halle Harker, 2014-present – 1677
4. Christy Nore, 1985-88 – 1597
5. Jami Coughlin, 1998-2001 – 1528