TEMPE – With a season-high 13 aces, No. 7 Sun Devil Volleyball defeated San Diego in four sets (25-15, 23-25, 25- 11, 25-14) on Saturday at Desert Financial Arena to wrap up the Snyder-Park Classic.
Notable stats
- Arizona State (7-2) held San Diego (3-4) to a .000 hitting percentage. That is the Toreros’ lowest clip since at least 2017. For ASU, this is the fourth time an opponent has been held to a sub-.100 hitting percentage.
- The Sun Devils had 13 aces, a season high and the most the program has had in a match since 2023. It is tied for the sixth-most in a match in the rally-scoring era at ASU. The serving effort was led by junior defensive specialist Piper Rama, who had a career-high five.
- Arizona State had 11 blocks, the second-straight match with double-digit blocks, fourth of the year. Both middle blockers led in blocking numbers, junior Antonina Serafinowska with six and junior Zoey Burgess with five.
- Senior opposite hitter Noemie Glover led all players in kills with 18 on a .350 clip. She has had double-digit kills in every match at the Snyder-Park Classic. She also added seven digs.
- Holding down the backrow was junior libero Faith Frame with 15 digs. She helped ASU to a season high in digs with 63, with three different players reaching double figures. For Frame, this was her fifth match in a row with double-digit digs.
- Another Sun Devil in double figures was junior outside hitter Una Vajagic, who earned her first double-double of the season (11th of her career) with 13 kills and 13 digs. This was also a season high in digs.
- Freshman setter Elle Mottola had 34 assists and 13 digs for her second double-double of her young career. That also is a new career high in digs for her.
Set one: ASU 25, USD 15
The first set saw both teams go back and forth until San Diego took the lead, 8-4. A kill from Mottola brought the score to 10 apiece. After a long rally, Vajagic helped the Sun Devils take the lead, 14-11. The Toreros tried to fight back, but a 9-0 run from the Sun Devils brought the score to 17-11. San Diego responded with a few points, but a kill from Burgess sealed the first set, 25-15.
Set two: USD 25, ASU 23
The Sun Devils started off the second set with a 3-0 run. A 5-0 run from San Diego brought the visiting team close to Arizona State, 10-9. However, a service error from the Toreros helped the Sun Devils advance the lead. A kill from San Diego brought the score to 12 apiece. ASU quickly battled it with a 5-2 run, taking the lead, 17-14. A few points from San Diego brought the game to 17 apiece until a kill from the Toreros placed them in the lead. The battle at the net continued as San Diego fought back with a 3-0 run to take the 23-22 lead. A block from Serafinowska and freshman outside hitter Grace Martin tied the game at 23 points, leading San Diego to use its last timeout. A service ace from San Diego closed out the set with a 25-23 win.
Set three: ASU 25, USD 11
The Sun Devils started off the third set strong by gaining a massive 15-5 lead, which was made up of 10 kills and five San Diego errors. San Diego responded with two points but Glover fought back with her 12th kill of the game to bring the score up to 17-7. A 6-2 run from ASU brought the score to 23-11. A final kill by Serafinowska secured the third set, 25-11, holding the Toreros to a -.138 hitting percentage in this frame.
Set four: ASU 25, USD 14
The Sun Devils took the first two points of the set. San Diego quickly retaliated to tie the game at 2-2 until several errors from the Toreros and a kill from Glover advanced the Sun Devils in the lead, 6-4. The set continued to see both teams exchange points until the Sun Devils went on an 8-0 run and put ASU at a 20-11 advantage. A kill by Vajagic brought the score to 24-13. While San Diego fought back, an attack error from them handed over the win to ASU, 25-14.
Up next
Arizona State is on the road next week to close out nonconference play, traveling to San Luis Obispo, California, for the SLO Classic, hosted by Cal Poly. ASU will play Stanford on Thursday and Cal Poly on Friday.
Quotes
Head Coach JJ Van Niel
Opening statement:
“Obviously, a nice match. Great crowd, I wasn't sure what to expect, and we’re pretty fired up for everyone that came. I really appreciate all the fans coming out. And having band and cheer there, it makes for such a good environment. Before the match, I told them our big key was going to be defensively, let's shut them down. And we held them to zero, so we did a great job there. Still have some work offensively but a really nice job defensively. The serving was phenomenal.”
On the offensive duo of Vajagić and Glover:
“They're obviously very important to our team. They're kind of our big guns that we go to a lot. And it's nice to see that Noemie kind of really had a great match after starting off slow. And Una started off slow and really recovered nicely the last few sets, so it's good to see that. We need them.”
On playing at home before a four-game road trip:
“We love playing at home, and we love playing in front of our home crowd. So it was really nice to have it because I think we're on the road two weeks in a row. So it was great to get this win. It was great to have such a big crowd and hopefully get them excited when we come back in a few weeks.”
Freshman setter Elle Mottola
On how the Sun Devils were able to bounce back after dropping the second set:
“Next game mentality, we obviously got beat down a little bit and then we came back harder and stronger and proved that we're not going to let that happen again. We're going to keep fighting every point and just trust each other throughout all the games.”
On how she stays positive throughout the game:
"After each point I always go over to my hitters, make sure, good or bad swing, they know I have them and they have me. So just keeping that energy high in the next point, that next point mentality. Just keeping the energy because we all trust each other to get any ball over, any ball in, any ball killed.”
Junior outside Una Vajagić
On what she hopes to bring to Sun Devil Volleyball:
“I hope I'll bring stability. I hope I'll be the player who everybody else can trust and who everybody else feels good to play with.”
On how she feels about the long rallies that end in big kills:
“For me, as an attacker, I think when our libero or any other player gets a crazy dig, it's really fun to hit that next ball because you get greater courage. So it's really nice to see how we were scrappy today.”
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