The ASU volleyball team went to the Bay Area this past weekend looking to snap a six-match losing streak but lost both matches against top-15 opponents, getting swept by both No. 6 Stanford and No. 15 Cal.
After a campus-wide power outage postponed the match, ASU took on Stanford on Saturday afternoon, getting swept 3-0 (31-33, 21-25, 20-25) but pushing Stanford to the brink a couple of times.
The first set was a wild back-and-forth affair that saw a total of 64 points, 20 tie scores, and 11 lead changes.
The Sun Devils (11-10, 1-8 Pac-10) took an early 10-6 lead but the Cardinal came back, and from then on neither team led the set by more than two points.
The Sun Devils were one point away from taking the set six times, but the Cardinal defense was able to hold up and Stanford took the set.
The second set saw ASU jump out to another early lead. The Sun Devils opened the set on a 10-3 run to set early pace, but Stanford again came back and another back and forth set took place.
ASU was able to pull ahead 21-18 at one point, but the Cardinal outscored the Sun Devils 7-0 from that point forward to take it.
The third set saw ASU take another early lead, this time 12-6, but the Cardinal outscored ASU 19-8 the rest of the way to finish the match.
Junior outside hitter Sarah Reaves had another fantastic offensive night finishing with 22 kills and a .291 hitting percentage as she recorded her ninth double-double of 2009.
Sophomore outside hitter Sofie Schlagintweit contributed 13 kills and 13 digs, while junior libero Sarah Johnson led the defense with 22 digs,
On Sunday afternoon, the Sun Devils were swept by Cal 3-0 (18-25, 17-25, 13-25). ASU never led in the first set as Cal hit .576 and didn’t make an error.
The Sun Devils took a 13-9 lead during the second set, but once again they saw an opponent go on a big run as Cal went on a 10-2 stretch to put the set away.
The third set saw ASU have its lowest hitting percentage of the year in a single set as the Sun Devils hit -.056. The negative score is only possible when a team has more errors than kills, which is what happened as ASU had only six kills against eight errors in the third set, allowing Cal to take the final frame easily.
Reaves led ASU with 14 kills and 13 digs for her tenth double-double of the year.
Reach the reporter at kyle.glaser@asu.edu.
