Every team knows the importance of defending their home court, but the ASU women’s volleyball team has taken that concept above and beyond.
After defeating Utah State University Aggies 3-0 (28-26, 25-20, 25-15) in the Sun Devils' final game at the Northern Arizona Tournament, the team is now 6-0 in the state of Arizona for the 2017-18 season.
Head coach Sanja Tomasevic said the Sun Devils learned from the adversity they faced in the Gonzaga Invitational last week where the Sun Devils finished 1-2. Tomasevic said the team had a great week in the gym leading up to Friday by improving upon their weaknesses.
"I am proud of how we performed this weekend," Tomasevic said. "And (I) look forward to continued improvement moving forward."
The Sun Devils were led by senior middle blocker Oluoma Okaro, who led the team with 14 kills and was responsible for seven of the team’s 42 digs of the match.
Freshman setter Shelbie Dobmeier continued to pile up the assists leading the team with 34 on the match while senior libero Halle Harker kept climbing the Sun Devil all-time digs leader board, adding 10 more to her name.
It was not a cakewalk for the Sun Devils as they were challenged in the first set by an Aggies team that went on a 6-0 run at the end of the set.
This tied the game up at 24 a piece and forced a win by two overtime situations in which the Sun Devils prevailed and took the set 28-26.
After the first set, the Sun Devils relied on runs to boost them on their way to three consecutive set wins.
The Aggies jumped out to a 3-1 second set lead and seemed to be in a position to dominate the Sun Devils and tie up the match.
ASU had other ideas and went on an 11-3 run to flip the script of the set and take a 12-6 lead.
After that run, Utah State was never within four points of ASU's score, as the Sun Devils took the set easily by a score of 25-20 to take a 2-0 set lead.
In the third set, the Sun Devils never trailed the Aggies; ASU used an 8-3 run to bump their lead to 15-8 and finished off the Aggies by a score of 25-15.
Next week the Sun Devils will travel to Arlington, Texas to play in the UT Arlington Maverick Classic where they will start the tournament off against Lamar University.
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