Junior setter Bianca Arellano sets the ball for junior middle blocker Whitney Follettein a home game against University of Washington, Friday, Oct. 17 at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. The Huskies swept the Sun Devils, 3-0. (Photo by Ben Moffat)The match with more than 4,100 attendees was the first loss of the season in which ASU coach Jason Watson found no silver lining in the defeat.
“It’s disappointing given that I thought we held Washington offensively to below their season average and put some pressure on them,” he said. “It’s a shame, it’s a big disappointment.”
Despite hitting just .256 as a team, No. 3 Washington defeated No. 17 with ease in three sets (19-25, 20-25, 18-25).
“You come in and you say we’re going to hold Washington to .200, you have to like your chances at home, your offense is going to at least get to .200, at least kind of mirror that,” Watson said, emphasizing ‘at least’ when he said it. “We just didn’t. We just… we just didn’t.
Washington, known for being a strong hitting team, had 10 total blocks. ASU had nine. That wasn’t the difference, Watson said. Offensively, the difference was that ASU couldn’t finish rallies.
“We got into these rallies where we had chances where we were hitting some balls and they were giving us some free balls too,” he said. “At the end of the play we made the error, whereas at the end of the play they didn’t, and that was really frustrating.”
Though the set scores were relatively close, there were few occasions when ASU looked as good as Washington. The Sun Devils started off strong, taking a 10-6 lead and playing great defense while being hyped by the electric crowd, but Washington went on a 5-0 run to take a lead and didn’t fall behind for the rest of the set.
In the set, junior middle blocker Macey Gardner had two kills and two errors on 12 attempts.
“It was hard to be able to get either one-on-one looks at the block or,” she said, faltering. “It was just hard to score points, really, that’s what comes down to it.”
They were hard to defend as well. Junior setter Bianca Arellano compared Washington’s 6-2 system to Stanford’s 5-1.
“I think that definitely helps when we only have to worry about those two hitters,” she said, referring to Stanford’s game style, which is similar to most teams ASU’s played against. “When you’ve got three of those people to worry about and they’re setting fast… that’s a little bit harder.”
Gardner also mentioned the depth of Washington’s hitters, particularly the right side, which performed well.
The big difference in the match, according to Watson, was ASU’s faults in serve receiving.
“They served really well and relentlessly on their targets,” Watson said.
There were perhaps a half dozen times when ASU would receive a serve but the dug ball would sail just over the net and out of reach for Arellano to make a pass. Each one resulted in an easy Washington kill.
Head coach Jason Watson reacts to a call in a match against the University of Washington, Friday, Oct. 17, 2014 at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. The Huskies swept the Sun Devils, 3-0. (Photo by Ben Moffat)“I thought in games one and two our serve receipt, maybe not direct points but indirect points, was the difference in both games,” Watson said. “Clean that up… it’s maybe a little bit different of a story.”
In addition to ASU’s continued struggles with receiving serves, ASU was unable to stop Washington’s tip points. Stanford utilized this well, destroying ASU with softly hit lobs, and though ASU looked better against the hits, it couldn’t catch up to the majority of them.
The second set, which was fairly close, ended in four consecutive Washington tip points, the last of which deflected off senior middle blocker Mercedes Binns’ hand and foot and then meekly tapped by a diving Gardner before falling to the ground.
Gardner stepped up in that set, recording eight kills and hitting .571. When ASU fell behind 10-16, she scored ASU’s next four points. It wasn’t enough, though, as ASU fell 20-25.
Washington went up quickly in set three. ASU made some runs, but they were all too small to gain traction. Down 18-24, redshirt freshman libero Genevieve Pirotte was put into the match to serve. It was only her second time off the bench in the outing.
ASU got a point but her next serve went into the net. Washington won 19-25.
Sophomore outside hitter BreElle Bailey had only one kill, which came on 17 attempts. She made seven errors. This comes after the Stanford match in which she recorded five kills and had seven errors on 26 attempts.
Both junior middle blocker Whitney Follette and senior setter Shannan McCready returned to the court after suffering injuries. Follette, who had appendicitis surgery in mid-Sept., was a high point of ASU. She went 3-3 in the first set and finished the match 8-18 with only one error.
“It felt really good to be on the court, especially with all the student support we had,” she said.
Follette said it was difficult to catch up to the speed of blocking.
“I think that’ll come,” she said, and added that she’ll continue “practicing footwork and speeding that up.”
Watson was pleased with her play at the M-2 spot after not seeing court time since Sept. 12.
“To get her out there and for her to play that well, it’s great for her,” Watson said. “It’s good for our team.”
That’s the silver lining of being blown out by the No. 3 team in the country.
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Logan_Newsman
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