Freshman setter Kylie Pickrell was the final scratch and the third major contributor of No. 14 ASU women’s volleyball to miss the match against Cal.
Head coach Jason Watson did not say why she didn't play in a postgame statement.
Playing in the 5-1 offensive system, ASU lost 3-1 (25-14, 21-15, 19-25, 22-25).
"We simply need to play better for longer," Watson said. "It's not complicated, it's just hard to do."
It’s difficult to tell what to make of ASU.
The team go through stretches of dominance, like the first set.
On offense, the team hit .375 and had only two hitting errors. Junior outside hitters Cassidy Pickrell and BreElle Bailey combined for seven kills.
The defense was even better: it had four blocks and held Cal to a .062 hitting percentage.
Redshirt senior Lillian Schonewise, Cal’s star middle blocker, had only two attempts in the set, getting a kill on one of them. Freshman outside hitter Belen Castillo had 11 attempts and had two kills and two hitting errors.
ASU won it easily and looked to be on its way to victory.
It’s flaw of struggling in the second set reared its head.
Cal got off to a quick 7-3 lead and didn’t allow ASU to go ahead in the rest of the set. Sun Devil defense was unable to respond to anything Cal hit its way.
The Bears had 21 kills and one error on 47 attempts. They hit .426 as a team. Schonewise and Castillo combined for 11 kills and a .434 hitting percentage.
In the past, ASU recovered after its poor second sets. Without two veterans and a setter missing, it was unable to regain steam.
Cal took a 19-11 lead in the third set.
While ASU is inconsistent and it’s tough to figure the team out, it’s a resilient squad. ASU began cutting into the score before eventually falling in the set.
After two of the strongest sets Pickrell has played this season, Cal adjusted to her in the third. Her .429 hitting percentage fell to .222 after hitting four errors and only three kills in the set.
Meanwhile, Schonewise was continuing to dominate. Cal’s junior setter Alyssa Jensen would go to her on a slide route multiple times in a row in the same rally, and Schonewise would typically be able to convert.
Perhaps biggest difference: Cal stopped killing itself with service errors after the second set, while ASU had multiple errors in both the third and fourth sets.
In the first two, Cal had nine service errors. It had one in each of the final two sets.
Schonewise had three kills in four plays midway through the fourth to give Cal a 10-6 lead.
ASU fought back. Later in the set, it went on a 9-4 run, tying the game at 21. Cal finished with four of the next five points and winning the match.
Junior libero Mia Mazon, playing at times in the back row for Kylie Pickrell, had 12 digs. Senior setter Bianca Arellano finished with 41 assists, 10 digs and three blocks.
ASU lost its second consecutive match. It's the sixth loss in the last eight matches.
"It's on me to find a way to get us to compete, be simple and play how we have shown we can for long periods of time," Watson said.
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow @Logan_Newsman on Twitter.
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