No. 10 ASU began its final pre-conference weekend with a 3-0 sweep over UNLV that lasted for just one hour, 11 minutes.
UNLV looked lethargic from the get-go.
The Rebels weren’t moving much to begin the first set and weren’t communicating well. Their passes struggled to find the targets.
ASU took a quick 10-3 lead; at that point, UNLV had no kills. Two of the Rebels’ points came off ASU service errors.
Communication cost UNLV a couple other points. Twice early, Rebel players called out that an ASU hit was going out of bounds. A UNLV player touched the ball, presenting ASU with easy points.
ASU took a 15-5 lead, hitting over .500 at that point. UCLA picked up its energy but ASU ran away with the set, hitting .364 as a team with just one error. Senior outside hitter Macey Gardner had three kills and hit .750.
The following sets saw less accuracy from ASU offense as UNLV adjusted, but ASU’s defense remained strong. Four players on ASU finished with double-digit digs and the team had six blocks total.
Junior outside hitter BreElle Bailey said UNLV adjusted to ASU’s blocking patterns so the Sun Devils had to adjust to the Rebels’ slide attack.
“A big thing was timing for us and just beating their slide hitter to the spot,” she said.
Redshirt junior middle blocker Bree Hammel, a catalyst of the attack, finished with seven kills on 15 attempts. Outside hitter Sadie Stutzman had six kills and seven errors on 32 attempts.
The third set started with a revitalized UNLV team. The defense was moving better and with a greater purpose. In the first set, Gardner got a kill on a soft hit that landed in the middle of defenders. Early in set three, the same type of hit from Gardner was dug by a diving Rebel.
UNLV kept the set tight until they cut the deficit to 10-9.
Bailey responded with consecutive kills. UNLV then had three consecutive attack errors. Multiple hits throughout the match hit the antennae on the net, an occurrence that’s typically relatively rare.
Senior middle blocker Whitney Follette had an ace to complete the 7-1 run and help ASU push the set out of reach.
Follette had two aces and no service errors.
Set three also featured freshman middle blocker Jasmine Koonts. She started the set; head coach Jason Watsonsaid she needs to see some playing time and it’s tough to find it during Pac-12 play.
Koonts played well, but was welcomed to the league by a big block from Hammel.
“There’s a really big block… I found that out real quick,” Koonts said, laughing.
She said that fellow freshman setter Kylie Pickrell helped her adjust, and her two other hits resulted in kills. Koonts hits hard and leaps high, attacking the ball quickly and leaving little time for the defense to adjust.
Cassidy is also adjusting. On Tuesday, she said that she needed to work on her swing after having a season hitting percentage of just .107.
She finished the match with 10 kills on 27 attempts and only two errors, good for a respectable .296percentage.
Pickrell said that in practice, she focused on hitting the ball and high and attacking sets that came in her window. Watson expanded on the latter part of her statement.
“We’re all about making sure that this ball is in your hitting window,” he said. “If it’s in your hitting window, then just go blast it and if you make an error then we’re cool with it.”
Pickrell’s performance was overshadowed by Bailey’s. Her three kills in the final set pushed her total to nine, and she finished with an incredible .692 percent. Bailey said the middles helped her find holes by holding the UNLV blockers on them.
“I usually just had one blocker up,” Bailey said. “It was easy to find seams and get the ball in my window.”
Watson said he was pleased with the way the two hitters responded from practice.
“We need that return, given what’s coming tomorrow,” he said.
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow @Logan_Newsman on Twitter.
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