ASU volleyball dropped its sixth straight match on the road Wednesday night to the No. 22 USC Trojans in four sets, losing by final scores of 25-15, 25-18, 27-25, and 25-20.
The Trojans (11-5, 3-2 Pac-12) controlled the match from the beginning, decisively winning the first set and never looking back. Behind an impressive 22 kills from freshman Khalia Lanier, the Trojans opened up the 2-0 overall lead with ease in front of the home crowd.
As for the Sun Devils (7-10, 0-5 Pac-12), the lone bright spot was the third set — a hard-fought 27-25 victory for ASU. Back-to-back kills for freshman Ivana Jeremic finished off the set. From there, it looked like there was hope of a comeback win.
In defeat, Jeremic and sophomore Lexi Maclean led the way with ten kills each.
In the fourth and eventually final set, the Sun Devils failed to capitalize off the momentum, as USC opened up an early lead and led the entire way through the set. ASU made things close at the end, but a kill from sophomore Alyse Ford closed out the Trojans’ victory.
For ASU, this marks the continuation of a dismal start to the Pac-12 slate after dropping a heartbreaker against then-No. 21 Oregon despite leading two sets to zero.
The difficult Pac-12 slate won’t get any easier with a road test at No. 18 UCLA — which comes off of a loss to Colorado last week — before staying on the road to face California and No. 7 Stanford on back-to-back nights next weekend.
The Sun Devils' match with the Bruins will take place Friday night at 7 P.M. in Los Angeles.
Reach the reporter at jeff.griffith21@asu.edu or follow @Jeff_Griffith21 on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepressport on Twitter.
