Injuries continue to pile up for No. 13 ASU women’s volleyball.
Senior outside hitter Macey Gardner tore her ACL on Oct. 9. During that same time frame, junior opposite hitter Kizzy Ricedorff started feeling pain in her right hand.
Freshman middle blocker Jasmine Koonts missed this last weekend due to a concussion. Head coach Jason Watson said she was at practice on Tuesday.
Ricedorff practiced last week. On the Oct. 13 practice, she played in the back row. She missed both matches the following weekend.
After practice on Tuesday, Watson confirmed that she was not in attendance that day and that he doesn’t know when she’ll return. Ricedorff later said that the main problem stemmed from numbness in her right thumb. She wasn’t able to feel the ball, so she had trouble with special perception and couldn’t control the ball.
She added that her MRIs look fine, but her spine is “a little messed up” and there may be pinched nerves in her neck. She hasn’t been available for comment since.
In the time without Gardner and Ricedorff, the attack game has predictably suffered.
Through the Washington match, ASU averaged 47 kills per match. In three games since, the team has averaged 36. Lineups have been in flux.
Freshman outside hitter Lexi MacLean was forced to remove her redshirt and play against Washington State.
“That would’ve been awesome to have a fifth year of school here, but things happen and unfortunately that’s the way it is,” MacLean said.
In her five matches, she has 20 kills, 15 errors and 28 digs.
"I was kind of nervous (against Washington State) because I kind of just got thrown in there but I was ready to go,” she said.
Senior setter Bianca Arellano said teams attack MacLean on the serve, but she’s working on back row defense.
“Lexi is definitely a really smart player,” Arellano said. “She hasn’t had a lot of passing reps, but we give her a lot of them.”
MacLean has shown power in her hits and gives the team positive energy in an emotional time with so many players missing. The largest impact offensively, though, has been the move of senior Whitney Follette from middle blocker to opposite hitter.
It’s her first time playing the opposite side since her senior year of high school.
She said she though the change back might happen.
“I didn’t know if we were actually going to do it, but in my mind I (was) like, ‘Oh, this could be a possibility,’” Follette said.
Watson said that the move was made in part to provide extra defense to the pins. Gardner was a very productive defender — in her career, she’s one of only ten Sun Devils to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs. Her 34 blocks this season is second among ASU outside hitters, behind 6-foot 4-inch junior BreElle Bailey.
Follette had 12 total blocks over the last weekend, and she’s only four block assists away from getting the second-most block assists in school history.
Follette also had success offensively, hitting 23 kills and seven errors.
Arellano said Follette’s adept to hit from the pin.
“We keep thinking we need to give her a high ball because she’s a middle but that’s not the case,” Arellano said. “She wants to go just as fast. … She’s got a quick swing and she’s just so strong. She can get to the ball no matter where it is.”
Related Links:
No. 10 ASU women's volleyball loses its fourth consecutive match with Macey Gardner injured
No. 10 ASU women's volleyball shows improvement in loss to No. 1 USC
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow @Logan_Newsman on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
