In their first Pac-12 home match of the season, ASU volleyball was swept by No. 22 Washington State 3-0.
The Sun Devils have a 12-5 overall record and are 3-2 in conference play after sweeping both Oregon State and Oregon on the road last weekend.
However, the three Pac-12 wins were all on the road, and head coach Sanja Tomasevic said that the team feels additional pressure whenever they play at home.
“For some reason, whenever we play at home we feel like we have to do something extra, something more,” Tomasevic said. “We have to play the game we play on the road when we are not in front of 942, in front of our boyfriends and whole crowd. Just play the same game wherever we are at.”
In set one, the Sun Devils fell to the Cougars 25-17. WSU had a high hitting percentage of .382 for the set.
“We are not doing a good job blocking or defending; that was probably our worst part of the game,” Tomasevic said.
Sophomore middle blocker Megan Beedie led ASU in kills for the match with nine, and she had the highest individual hitting percentage at .438. Overall, the Sun Devils also had a total of five blocks.
Beedie said that going into Sunday's game, the team needs to focus on sticking to their blocking assignments.
“Everything we scouted out, we need to stick to that and not go rogue during the game,” she said.
ASU began set two by scoring seven straight points. The Sun Devils stayed in the lead, but ultimately it wasn’t enough to hold the Cougs down. WSU tied ASU 17-17 before taking the set at 25-21.WSU then proceeded to take the last set 25-17.
“This was the first Pac-12 game — I think the nerves are gone now, we know what we need to do,” senior outside hitter Alyse Ford said. “We don’t like this feeling after the match, so we just have to remember this feeling and really dial in.”
ASU Volleyball has their next Pac-12 match at home against No. 15 Washington on Sunday, Oct. 7.
Reach the reporter at skbrisen@asu.edu or follow @sophiabriseno on Twitter.
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