After starting out the season strong and entering conference play with a mere two losses, the Sun Devils have now dropped four straight.
Since conference play began last Thursday, the Sun Devils have struggled to pick up a win, their latest defeat coming in Friday’s match against the University of California, Berkeley Golden Bears by a score of 3-0.
Head coach Sanja Tomasevic said the Sun Devils need to show grit in the face of adversity rather than folding.
"Tonight was simply disappointing,"Tomasevic said. "Credit to California, as they showed heart, something we unfortunately lacked."
The Sun Devils were led by senior middle blocker and California native, Oluoma Okaro, who picked up a double-double with 16 kills and 12 digs on the match.
Senior libero Halle Harker led ASU with 22 digs on the match while sophomore setter Nicole Peterson picked up 19 assists to lead the charge for the Sun Devils in that category.
ASU ran into trouble with its hit percentage that was at 11.5 percent on the match while the Golden Bears were hitting at a 23.9 percent clip.
The Golden Bears started out strong from the get go as they jumped out to an early 5-3 lead over ASU in set one – Cal just seemed to be outpacing the Sun Devils.
The Sun Devils were able to climb back and make the game close, at times cutting the deficit down to two points. But the Golden Bears seemed to be one step ahead of the Sun Devils in the early part of the first set.
ASU called a timeout while down 12-8 to try and steal some momentum from Cal. However, the Golden Bears would not give it up and expanded on their lead by going on a 7-0 run.
While the Sun Devils tried to make it close, they could not overcome the deficit and lost the first set by a score of 25-19.
Neither team could get a leg up in set two as the Sun Devils and Golden Bears traded points. ASU seemed to be focused on not giving up another lopsided run like they did in set one.
The teams continued to keep pace with one another and never let the opposing side gain an advantage of more than two points, until Cal went on a 3-0 run to pull away from the Sun Devils by a score of 15-12.
The Sun Devils cut the Cal lead down to one, trailing 20-19 after a Cal timeout and gained a lead of 21-20 shortly thereafter. But ASU could never tie things up with the Golden Bears, who won the second set 25-20.
Cal came out like a team on a mission in set three, going on a 3-0 run to start the game.
However, ASU would not go down without a fight, as the Sun Devils were able to trim the Golden Bears deficit down to one point trailing 6-5 and then again at 8-7.
Eventually the Sun Devils were able to tie up the game at 9-9 and tried to pull away from the Golden Bears gaining and losing a series of one-point leads.
The Golden Bears put an end to the one-point leads and used a 4-0 run to leap ahead of the Sun Devils by a score of 14-11.
Cal took the final set by a score of 25-19 and handed the Sun Devils their second straight sweep in California.
Reach the reporter at Joshua.Zaklis@asu.edu and follow @JoshZaklis on Twitter.
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