TUCSON — The McKale Center was loud, excited, and filled with blue and red Friday night in the opening match of the Territorial Cup Series. The stage was set for a classic showdown between in-state rivals.
The historic rivalry resumed over the weekend when the ASU volleyball team battled UA on the road, and the Wildcats came out on top with a 3-0 sweep.
In their first road match in over a month, the Sun Devils (5-10, 0-3 Pac-10) struggled to compete against the Wildcats (11-4, 1-2 Pac-10).
Other than a competitive first set that saw seven tie scores, the Sun Devils failed to respond. UA won straight sets 26-24, 25-19, and 25-12.
“There are all these what-ifs, but bottom line we didn’t get it done,” ASU coach Jason Watson said. “We can look at all of these other subplots, but the main one being we just didn’t play well. We didn’t get it done, and that’s the result.”
Offensive struggles were a recurring issue for ASU throughout the night. Although ASU holds several potent weapons on offense, the Sun Devils were unable to capitalize on such talent.
Senior outside hitter Sarah Reaves saw most of the set opportunities and led the team with 16 kills.
Watson had hoped to utilize all of his team’s offensive weapons, including sophomore middle blocker Erica Wilson. However, Wilson was not given many opportunities against the Wildcats.
“It’s pretty disappointing,” Watson said. “Clearly she’s a big part of what it is that we are about, not only offensively but emotionally, she gets excited about playing volleyball. We didn’t enable her to be a part of the outcome of the match. I think she’s a pretty frustrated kid because of that and rightfully so.”
ASU could only muster a .093 attack percentage on the night, with Wilson limited to only two kills.
Watson believes a more balanced offense may have significantly changed the outcome of the match.
“We need to be more diverse,” Watson said. “I don’t think we had the opportunity to do that. Especially late in game three they went and got in front of our outside hitters as well they should. It just was a fragmented performance at best, certainly with a whole lot better offense I think things can change for us.”
Along with an anemic offense, ASU was forced to compete in a heated environment. While the rowdy UA fans may have been daunting, uncomfortable crowds are common in the Pac-10.
“I think it’s a good crowd,” Watson said. “It’s the way the crowd should be if you’re the University of Arizona, you want to play in front of them. It’s not going to get easier for us, we’ve got to go on the road, and we’ve got to be better.”
Adding to ASU’s offensive woes, the Sun Devils found themselves committing unfortunate mistakes throughout the match. ASU committed 20 attack errors, with 12 unforced errors in the third set alone.
“We just make stupid mistakes,” senior libero Sarah Johnson said. “We didn’t have any leadership tonight, nobody stepped up to the plate and said we have to play better. Yeah we did say that, but it’s just talk. That’s not us, and it’s hopefully never going to be us in the future.”
With the majority of conference play yet to be played, the Sun Devils realize they must put an end to their offensive struggles if they want to be successful.
“It’s either now or never,” Johnson said. “So hopefully we can look at this and use it and learn from it, instead of keep on making the mistakes. We played horrible, but hopefully we can take something good away from it and get ready to play Oregon and Oregon State.”
Reach the reporter at gregory.dillard@asu.edu
