After sweeping Weber State and North Dakota State on Friday, the Sun Devils picked up their third straight win to start the season on Saturday against Boise State.
The Sun Devils swept the Broncos in the final game of the Sun Devil Volleyball Classic Saturday evening, only trailing once during the three sets.
ASU was led by freshman setter Shelbie Dobmeier who picked up 36 assists on Saturday, which helped her earn a place on the all-tournament team. Head coach Sanja Tomasevic said that she didn’t plan on Dobmeier’s big game.
“I wish I could have planned stuff like that and have it come out and happen,” Tomasevic said. "I just hope they happen and pray. She did unbelievable today."
However, Tomasevic said that even after starting 3-0, the starting lineup is still up in the air and players will have to continue to prove themselves this week at practice.
Overall, the Sun Devils had mixed feelings about their expectations for the tournament.
Freshman outside hitter Griere Hughes was not very confident that the team would have such success.
“It’s a brand new team, so I thought we were really going to be in shambles so we came out and I was pretty surprised,” Hughes said. “I’m glad we did good; I’m excited for the season to start.”
Senior libero Halle Harker had no doubt about how the games would turn out.
“I was expecting nothing but going 3-0, I didn’t know what that was going to look like,” Harker said. “I think we expect greatness inside of our gym and nothing less.”
In the first set, the Sun Devils acquired an early 8-3 lead over the Broncos.
It was smooth sailing for the Sun Devils after that, which included a 5-0 run, pushing their lead to 20-13 over the Broncos.
However, the Broncos did not go down easy, finishing the set on an 8-5 run, but it was a little too late for Boise State who lost the first set by a score of 25-22.
The Broncos never took the lead during the first two sets, despite cutting the Sun Devil lead down to one point at times.
The Sun Devils continued to establish their dominance, winning 25-19 over Boise State.
Senior middle blocker Oluoma Okaro and Hughes continued to lead the team with six kills a piece while Dobmeier jumped up to 20 assists.
In the third set, the Broncos fought back, taking their first lead of the match by a score of 5-4. However, the Sun Devils quickly recovered as they tied it up and then took the lead by a score of 6-5.
This started a 5-1 ASU run, and the Sun Devils cruised to their third set win of the night by a score of 25-19.
Okaro collected 14 kills to lead the team on the match while fellow senior Harker led the team in digs with 25, yet the stand out offensive player for the Sun Devils was Dobmeier, who picked up 36 assists as well as four kills.
