TEMPE – No. 21 Sun Devil Volleyball got their second top-five win of the year by sweeping No. 3 Stanford (25-16, 25-21, 25-14) in Mullett Arena on Sunday afternoon, their second ever sweep against the Cardinal and first since 1993.
Notable Stats
The Sun Devils started the first set off by bringing the pressure to the Cardinal. ASU got its first two kills on the board from Shields and Levinska. A service error followed by another kill from Levinska caused Stanford to call a timeout 10-5. The timeout did not aid the Cardinal against the Sun Devils as the home team went on a three-point run with a kill and block from Jeter, giving them a 15-6 lead and forcing the Cardinal to call another timeout. Levinska set the Sun Devils up for their set point with a kill followed by a kill from Robelo to get the Sun Devil's win.
Set Two: ASU 25, Stanford 21
ASU stayed neck and neck with Stanford throughout the second set. Geli Cyr with a kill brought ASU ahead 3-2 at the start. Jeter's kill tied the Sun Devils 4-4. ASU got ahead from a kill from Rabelo followed by Levinska and Cyr to add to the advantage. In this set, there were 13 ties and five lead changes. Stanford called for a timeout after Cyr's back-to-back kills to make it 19-17 for ASU. Shields set the Sun Devils up for their set point with a kill followed by a kill from Levinska to take the win.
Set Three: ASU 25, Stanford 14
After a couple points of back and forth, the Sun Devils went on a 7-0 run to go up 11-4. The run saw two blocks and kills from Rabelo and Levinska. Cyr's tip kill gave the Sun Devils a 16-11 lead. Cyr continued to aid Arizona State with two-straight aces, making it 20-11. Rabelo's kill set the Sun Devils up for their match point, followed by a kill from McLaughlin to complete the sweep of No. 3 Stanford in the three-set match.
Up Next
The Sun Devils will be on the road for their next two games. Taking on the Bruins at UCLA November 3 and the Trojans at USC November 5.
Quotes
Head Coach JJ Van Niel
Opening Statement:
"Too bad I'm not good with words because I feel like I should have some momentous quote. We talked before the game about Stanford crushing it because they're really really good. We talked about playing with a passion and with emotion and playing strong. Our focus was to throw everything at them and leave everything on the court and fly around defensively. Obviously I'm proud of this team. I'm always proud of them and I absolutely love them, but defensively they were just flying today. It was pretty rare tonight that Stanford wasn't getting kills on their first swing. We were getting touches, getting digs, and getting swings. Even if we didn't get a kill, we were getting it back over. It's one of those situations when you keep sending balls back over, people get tired and they get frustrated. I thought that was awesome. Serving was unbelievable. We pretty much knocked them off the net most of the match. I'm really proud of this team."
On what it took to beat Stanford:
"Before the match we talked about what it takes to have an upset and I said one of things we've done is have a fast offense. When you play physical teams, you have to run a fast offense to beat them with speed and we did. We managed the game really well. Honestly, we played with reckless abandon. The whole year our system has been to pass really well, serve really tough, and run a fast offense. We did it and we executed it at a really high level."
On the team's mentality playing in close sets:
"I think on the emotional side, it gets you fired up. I broke my clipboard when we won one of the long plays and it wasn't because I was upset. I was fired up because we won and I broke the clipboard. The team feeds off that. I was fired up even when we lost those long rallies because I was trying to remind them that we need to make them earn their points. You get teams frustrated when you make them earn their points. It takes them four swings to get a kill, that's frustrating. We were on tonight, it was cool."
On the team's ceiling:
"It's one game at a time. Now we have to go play USC and UCLA in LA but I hope this just adds confidence. At the end of the day, playing sports is about being confident. You can fake trying to give your team confidence, but these are the matches that they get fired up from and take it and realize how good we can be. If we play like that, we can beat anyone. We played really, really well and on any given night if we play like that, we can beat anyone. I hope this is one of those things that gets the kids fired up."
Graduate Libero Mary Shroll
On the defensive play today:
"I think all week we worked really hard on our out-of-system defense, and that is blockers getting their hips connected and defense playing around that, and I think when our block is there, it makes it so much easier to play defense around them. They're making really amazing touches tonight and one thing we said before this match was we just want to be relentless, we just wanna be gritty, going after every single ball, and it showed and just having that mindset it just shows out on the court."
On the energy after blocking:
"It definitely is a huge energy boost when we're getting up and especially after those long rallies. Something we said before this match was we wanna make them earn every single point, and that goes with being relentless on defense and blocking, being disciplined. There were a ton of plays that were just huge energy boosters and we just kind of ran with that."
On playing in Mullet Arena:
"I love Mullet, it is super fun to play and the fans are really loud in here. So I think that gives us an edge especially for the other teams. I'm sure they're all used to going over to Desert Financial Arena, so coming over to Mullet is a change of scenery, I think is always amazing. We're super grateful for both. We love DFA too. And we're just really happy that we can have Mullet for a couple games as well."
On moving forward:
"We call it our confidence piggy bank, kind of tucking it in there. We can play with any team and today, with all aspects of the game we played amazing. Coming off of wins like this, it really is. We can play anyone in the nation and we can beat them."
Senior Opposite Hitter Marta Levinska
On the defensive play today:
"We started just right off digging them and they're a really physical team and I think that what really helped us frustrate them a little bit was digging the balls and waiting for our opportunities and they came. I think we did a good job of that."
On the advantage after seven-straight points in the third set:
"Coach said before the game too, this game is gonna be up here, you know, mentally. I think we kept the energy up and definitely the fans, they were a big help. We celebrate every point we got because we know we worked so hard for it. It was amazing playing here and definitely we, you know, tried to take advantage of that."
On Stanford's errors:
"I think our block was pretty disciplined. I think they really tried to go after our hands and that a lot of times made them go out and kept the service pressure on them. I think they had the pressure from us and thought they have to keep service pressure on us too. And I think that resulted in a lot of errors from their side. I think we just did a better serve and pass game and I think that's what made them do theirs because they had to stay aggressive and we utilized that."
SUN DEVIL VOLLEYBALL TOP-FIVE WINS
3-0 vs. No. 3 Stanford (Oct. 29, 2023)
3-0 at No. 5 Oregon (Oct. 15, 2023)
3-0 vs. No. 2 Texas (Sept. 13, 2013)
3-1 at No. 5 Washington (Nov. 21, 2012)
3-2 at No. 2 Cal (Nov. 24, 2010)
3-1 vs. No. 5 USC (Oct. 15, 2010)
21+ WINS FOR SUN DEVIL VOLLEYBALL
1982: 31-16/8-6/NCAA second round
1986: 27-7/13-5/NCAA second round
1980: 24-17/4-8
1992: 23-8/11-7/NCAA second round
1985: 22-13/2-6/NCAA first round
2023: 21-3/9-3
1975: 21-8/13-5
1973: 21-10/8-0/AIAW Championship
Notable Stats
- Arizona State (21-3, 9-3 Pac-12) swept Stanford (18-3, 11-1 Pac-12) for the first three-set win against the Cardinal since 1993. This is just the second time ASU has ever swept Stanford. The last win against the Cardinal came in 2021.
- After the Cardinal gave the Sun Devils their first loss of the season, the Sun Devils handed them their first conference loss of the year.
- The Sun Devils have two top-five wins this season. The other other season with two top-five wins was in 2010, also one home and one away. But this is the first time ASU has swept two top-five teams in the same season.
- This was the 15th sweep of the season, which is tied with 2013 for the highest number of three-set wins in a single season.
- ASU got win 21 today, which is the most wins this century at Arizona State and is the sixth-highest win total in program history. Also, this is the 800th win in program history.
- The defense held Stanford to a .194 clip, its lowest hitting percentage of the season and first time this year held under .200.
- Senior opposite Marta Levinska led all players with 17 kills on a .371 clip. She had her fourth double-double of the year with 12 digs, tied for the team best.
- The Sun Devils out-served the Cardinal, six aces to three. Senior middle blocker Claire Jeter had three aces in the winning effort to go with her five kills and three blocks.
- Graduate setter Shannon Shields paced the offense with 28 assists, adding eight digs, three kills and an ace.
- Holding down the back row, graduate libero Mary Shroll had 12 digs, matching Levinska's total for the team high.
- Senior outside hitter Roberta Rabelo had a strong outing, totaling nine kills on a .381 clip.
Set One: ASU 25, Stanford 16Game frames from the Sun Devils first sweep against Stanford since 1993 ??#NCAAWVB x ?? @SunDevilVB pic.twitter.com/0gvr83QiBO
— NCAA Women's Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) October 29, 2023
The Sun Devils started the first set off by bringing the pressure to the Cardinal. ASU got its first two kills on the board from Shields and Levinska. A service error followed by another kill from Levinska caused Stanford to call a timeout 10-5. The timeout did not aid the Cardinal against the Sun Devils as the home team went on a three-point run with a kill and block from Jeter, giving them a 15-6 lead and forcing the Cardinal to call another timeout. Levinska set the Sun Devils up for their set point with a kill followed by a kill from Robelo to get the Sun Devil's win.
Set Two: ASU 25, Stanford 21
ASU stayed neck and neck with Stanford throughout the second set. Geli Cyr with a kill brought ASU ahead 3-2 at the start. Jeter's kill tied the Sun Devils 4-4. ASU got ahead from a kill from Rabelo followed by Levinska and Cyr to add to the advantage. In this set, there were 13 ties and five lead changes. Stanford called for a timeout after Cyr's back-to-back kills to make it 19-17 for ASU. Shields set the Sun Devils up for their set point with a kill followed by a kill from Levinska to take the win.
DOWN GOES NO. 3 STANFORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!#ForksUp /// #O2V pic.twitter.com/dQIXruDlAZ
— Sun Devil Volleyball (@SunDevilVB) October 29, 2023
Set Three: ASU 25, Stanford 14
After a couple points of back and forth, the Sun Devils went on a 7-0 run to go up 11-4. The run saw two blocks and kills from Rabelo and Levinska. Cyr's tip kill gave the Sun Devils a 16-11 lead. Cyr continued to aid Arizona State with two-straight aces, making it 20-11. Rabelo's kill set the Sun Devils up for their match point, followed by a kill from McLaughlin to complete the sweep of No. 3 Stanford in the three-set match.
Up Next
The Sun Devils will be on the road for their next two games. Taking on the Bruins at UCLA November 3 and the Trojans at USC November 5.
This FEELING >>>@jjvanniel how did that feel?#ForksUp pic.twitter.com/SGroiBrvK2
— Sun Devil Volleyball (@SunDevilVB) October 29, 2023
Quotes
Head Coach JJ Van Niel
Opening Statement:
"Too bad I'm not good with words because I feel like I should have some momentous quote. We talked before the game about Stanford crushing it because they're really really good. We talked about playing with a passion and with emotion and playing strong. Our focus was to throw everything at them and leave everything on the court and fly around defensively. Obviously I'm proud of this team. I'm always proud of them and I absolutely love them, but defensively they were just flying today. It was pretty rare tonight that Stanford wasn't getting kills on their first swing. We were getting touches, getting digs, and getting swings. Even if we didn't get a kill, we were getting it back over. It's one of those situations when you keep sending balls back over, people get tired and they get frustrated. I thought that was awesome. Serving was unbelievable. We pretty much knocked them off the net most of the match. I'm really proud of this team."
On what it took to beat Stanford:
"Before the match we talked about what it takes to have an upset and I said one of things we've done is have a fast offense. When you play physical teams, you have to run a fast offense to beat them with speed and we did. We managed the game really well. Honestly, we played with reckless abandon. The whole year our system has been to pass really well, serve really tough, and run a fast offense. We did it and we executed it at a really high level."
On the team's mentality playing in close sets:
"I think on the emotional side, it gets you fired up. I broke my clipboard when we won one of the long plays and it wasn't because I was upset. I was fired up because we won and I broke the clipboard. The team feeds off that. I was fired up even when we lost those long rallies because I was trying to remind them that we need to make them earn their points. You get teams frustrated when you make them earn their points. It takes them four swings to get a kill, that's frustrating. We were on tonight, it was cool."
On the team's ceiling:
"It's one game at a time. Now we have to go play USC and UCLA in LA but I hope this just adds confidence. At the end of the day, playing sports is about being confident. You can fake trying to give your team confidence, but these are the matches that they get fired up from and take it and realize how good we can be. If we play like that, we can beat anyone. We played really, really well and on any given night if we play like that, we can beat anyone. I hope this is one of those things that gets the kids fired up."
Graduate Libero Mary Shroll
On the defensive play today:
"I think all week we worked really hard on our out-of-system defense, and that is blockers getting their hips connected and defense playing around that, and I think when our block is there, it makes it so much easier to play defense around them. They're making really amazing touches tonight and one thing we said before this match was we just want to be relentless, we just wanna be gritty, going after every single ball, and it showed and just having that mindset it just shows out on the court."
On the energy after blocking:
"It definitely is a huge energy boost when we're getting up and especially after those long rallies. Something we said before this match was we wanna make them earn every single point, and that goes with being relentless on defense and blocking, being disciplined. There were a ton of plays that were just huge energy boosters and we just kind of ran with that."
On playing in Mullet Arena:
"I love Mullet, it is super fun to play and the fans are really loud in here. So I think that gives us an edge especially for the other teams. I'm sure they're all used to going over to Desert Financial Arena, so coming over to Mullet is a change of scenery, I think is always amazing. We're super grateful for both. We love DFA too. And we're just really happy that we can have Mullet for a couple games as well."
On moving forward:
"We call it our confidence piggy bank, kind of tucking it in there. We can play with any team and today, with all aspects of the game we played amazing. Coming off of wins like this, it really is. We can play anyone in the nation and we can beat them."
"We know we are a really good team; we just have to prove it."@michellachester is joined by Marta Levinska to discuss No. 21 @SunDevilVB's sweep over No. 3 Stanford. She shares their mentality going into the game, playing hard even when out of system, and their impressive team… pic.twitter.com/tLjFsmNCEL
— NCAA Women's Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) October 29, 2023
Senior Opposite Hitter Marta Levinska
On the defensive play today:
"We started just right off digging them and they're a really physical team and I think that what really helped us frustrate them a little bit was digging the balls and waiting for our opportunities and they came. I think we did a good job of that."
On the advantage after seven-straight points in the third set:
"Coach said before the game too, this game is gonna be up here, you know, mentally. I think we kept the energy up and definitely the fans, they were a big help. We celebrate every point we got because we know we worked so hard for it. It was amazing playing here and definitely we, you know, tried to take advantage of that."
On Stanford's errors:
"I think our block was pretty disciplined. I think they really tried to go after our hands and that a lot of times made them go out and kept the service pressure on them. I think they had the pressure from us and thought they have to keep service pressure on us too. And I think that resulted in a lot of errors from their side. I think we just did a better serve and pass game and I think that's what made them do theirs because they had to stay aggressive and we utilized that."
SUN DEVIL VOLLEYBALL TOP-FIVE WINS
3-0 vs. No. 3 Stanford (Oct. 29, 2023)
3-0 at No. 5 Oregon (Oct. 15, 2023)
3-0 vs. No. 2 Texas (Sept. 13, 2013)
3-1 at No. 5 Washington (Nov. 21, 2012)
3-2 at No. 2 Cal (Nov. 24, 2010)
3-1 vs. No. 5 USC (Oct. 15, 2010)
21+ WINS FOR SUN DEVIL VOLLEYBALL
1982: 31-16/8-6/NCAA second round
1986: 27-7/13-5/NCAA second round
1980: 24-17/4-8
1992: 23-8/11-7/NCAA second round
1985: 22-13/2-6/NCAA first round
2023: 21-3/9-3
1975: 21-8/13-5
1973: 21-10/8-0/AIAW Championship