Freshman libero Halle Harker digs the ball against Colorado State University on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014 at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. Colorado State beat the Sun Devils 3-2. (Photo by Ben Moffat)As No. 8 Colorado State dug every hit that came its way, No. 18 ASU tried to dig itself out of a 2-0 deficit.
That effort fell short, though, and the Sun Devils lost for just the second time this season.
“As good as we’ve been getting in 2012 and ‘13, we’ve never had this kind of ability to play well regardless of the score,” coach Jason Watson said. “I don’t think we’re afraid of the outcome anymore.
The first two sets were extremely close. Set one was marred by serving errors from both sides, but CSU pulled ahead due to their dig advantage, 15-10, and their hit errors advantage- the Rams had zero errors against ASU’s eight.
Sophomore outside hitter Kizzy Willey had seven kills on eight attempts and held ASU together as the team marched back from a five point deficit.
Redshirt freshman outside hitter Kwyn Johnson got the start in place of the injured junior middle blocker Whitney Follette. Johnson only played the first two sets, but received high praise from Watson after the match.
“I thought Kwyn, given the experience or the lack thereof, did as good as we could hope that she could do,” he said.
Watson said it was an uncomfortable experience for her given the caliber of opponent.
"I can’t speak highly enough for her willingness to go through that," he said. “She was really good in a shockingly uncomfortable environment for her.”
ASU hung in close in the second match, taking an 18-17 lead, but the Sun Devils began to play sloppy and miss digs. The score fell to 18-24 before CSU won 25-20.
ASU junior outside hitter Macey Gardner said that the CSU defense made ASU play long points and forced the Sun Devils to stay in the game.
“Their defense is more rotational and that is completely different than what we see in practice,” she said. “Trying to adjust to that during a game is a little bit difficult.”
CSU’s digging and deflections told the entire story of the first two sets. ASU attempted 79 attacks, 24 more than CSU, but the Rams had 32 digs. In two sets, junior outside hitter Macey Gardner had 25 attempts and only 5 errors; she completed only nine kills.
Senior setter Shannan McCready serves the ball against Colorado State University on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014 at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. Colorado State beat the Sun Devils 3-2. (Photo by Ben Moffat)Going into set three, Watson put in junior middle blocker Andi Lowrance in place of Johnson. He insisted that it was not due to dissatisfaction with Johnson’s work.
“With them only having like two errors after two games, we thought, ‘Well we need to do something to disrupt that,’” he said.
The Sun Devils changed as a whole at that point.
“I think we really narrowed in on their tendencies,” Willey said.
In the first two sets, the Rams showed pristine ball placement — the Sun Devils weren’t able to even touch many of their hits. As the match wore on, ASU forced more errors. CSU only had two errors in the first two sets, but amassed 17 in the next two. Their hitting percentage dropped from a combined 47 percent in the first two sets to a 9.8 percent in sets three and four.
A large part of this was due to Willey’s defensive efforts. She began tearing up the court and made stellar dives to dig balls. After recording four digs in the first two sets, she finished the match with 15.
ASU took sets three and four 25-18 and 25-17, respectively .
The Sun Devil’s comeback fell short, though, as CSU went on a 9-0 run to begin set five before winning 15-5. Junior setter Bianca Arellano said the Rams discovered ASU's game plan.
“I think that by that time they had figured out our tendencies and what we were going to try to do,” Arellano said. “Late in the game I tried to establish the middle and they figured out that I was just going to overload them.”
The only negative Watson said about the performance was their lack of defensive identity.
“I just think we’re struggling to find a floor defensive intensity,” Watson said. “I feel like we’re caught up in this thought process of ‘Should we respond or should we not respond’ where you look at a team like Colorado St. and they just respond.”
ASU was outdug 59-72 in the match.
“I thought that was the big difference,” Watson pointed to. “Their ability to create point-scoring opportunities and return those for points was just better than ours tonight.”
Although he said he was disappointed in the final score, Watson wasn’t upset with the match.
“I thought it was a fun match,” Watson said. “Certainly, it’s a unique thing to say given the outcome, but I thought it was a fun match.”
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Logan_Newsman
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