Life away from Wells Fargo Arena continues to be difficult for the ASU volleyball team.
Poor passing and a lackluster offensive attack plagued the Sun Devils (9-12, 4-5 Pac-10) as they concluded the first half of their conference schedule by splitting a weekend series in Washington.
ASU managed to extend its conference-winning streak to four matches on Friday night after handing Washington State a 3-2 loss. The four game winning streak in Pac-10 play was an achievement ASU had not accomplished since 1995.
However, that streak was quickly snapped Saturday with a 0-3 loss at the hands of No. 7 Washington.
While ASU returns to Tempe having split the weekend series, the Sun Devils were not thrilled with their performance in either match.
“We’ve played better,” senior outside hitter Sarah Reaves said. “We beat Washington State, and a win is a win, so I’m glad to be four and five. To split Washington, I mean, it’s not bad. It’s not great, but I’m glad we’re going home with one win.”
It was a back and forth battle from the start in ASU’s weekend opener against the Cougars (6-13, 0-9).
After an 18-25 opening set loss, the Sun Devils rebounded in round two with four kills from Reaves along with three kills from junior middle blocker Sonja Markanovich in the 25-20 set win to knot the match at 1-1.
The Sun Devils were handed a 15-25 defeat in set three, but responded once again with a 25-16 win in the fourth to force a decisive fifth frame. Reaves added two more kills to combine with sophomore middle blocker Erica Wilson’s two kills to defeat WSU 15-10 and steal the 3-2 match victory.
Following the Cougars, ASU commuted to Seattle for a matchup against the top 10 ranked Huskies (17-3, 6-3).
Despite ASU’s recent success against highly ranked teams, the competitive intensity was absent for the majority of the match.
“The passes were off, but I feel like everything was off,” junior setter Cat Highmark said. “My location and I didn’t distribute the ball as much. We just didn’t put the ball away. It was everything together; it wasn’t just one thing.”
The ASU offense could only muster a .074 attack percentage in the 16-25 first set loss. Set two featured three tie scores and three block assists from Markanovich.
UW senior outside hitter Kindra Carlson’s six kills in the set powered the Huskies to a 27-25 victory.
After the heartbreaking loss in set two, ASU looked to come out firing in the third set.
“We emotionally wanted to do it and emotionally wanted to come out and be ten times better in the third game,” Reaves said. “I don’t think we stayed on task, and were physically as prepared as we needed to be.”
UW cruised to a 25-15 third set victory to clinch the sweep over ASU. In each of the three sets at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, the inability to pass effectively hindered the Sun Devil attack.
“Our passing was just not on tonight,” Reaves said. “I think that’s hard when you go to a different school to get acclimated and pass as well as you do when you’re at home. It needs to happen, and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Although the Sun Devils split the road series, Highmark believes their struggles on the road are inexcusable.
“We weren’t our best against Washington State either,” Highmark said. “I felt like we were all off. We didn’t play our best either day. It’s always going to be rough on the road, but we can’t use that as an excuse. Everybody has to go through travel. We can’t use that as an excuse at all.”
Reach the reporter at gregory.dillard@asu.edu
