After a pregame ceremony honored departing seniors Sarah Reaves and Sarah Johnson, the ASU volleyball team gave them an even better sendoff in their final match at Wells Fargo Arena.
In four sets, the Sun Devils (12-17, 6-10 Pac-10) defeated Washington State on Saturday to give Reaves and Johnson a victory in their home finale.
With the win over the Cougars (6-20, 0-16), ASU split the weekend series after being swept by No.11 Washington on Friday night.
The Huskies (19-8, 8-8) continue to dominate the Sun Devils, who have not beaten UW since 2004. ASU’s win over WSU earns Sun Devil’s a season sweep and extends the Cougars’ losing streak to 16 in a row.
For the seniors, it’s a victory they will surely never forget.
“It feels good to make my last game a win,” Reaves said. “Me and [Johnson] knew coming into this game we were like ‘we know we can’t make postseason, but let’s do everything we can to win this game.’”
The Huskies strolled into Tempe on Friday night looking to halt their two-match losing streak.
Talented senior outside hitters Kindra Carlson and Becky Perry powered the Huskie offense with 16 and 12 kills each.
After losing the opening set 20-25, ASU battled in a set two that saw 14 tie scores and four lead changes. A service ace from Reaves knotted the score at 22-22, but Carlson responded with an ace of her own to put UW ahead by one.
The Huskies proceeded to capture the 25-23 set win and 2-0 match lead heading into the break.
Reaves slammed six kills in set three, but it wasn’t enough as Carlson added six kills of her own to lead UW to the 25-22 set win and 3-0 sweep.
By F. Diamond Grivalja
“We didn’t have this sense of urgency about some stuff,” ASU coach Jason Watson said. “Certainly how we play, when we are playing well, we need that. We need to be able to go dig a ball and turn it, and we need to be able to stay on task defensively. We just never got there.”
The Sun Devils provided plenty of urgency in their 3-1 victory over WSU by scores of 25-20, 19-25, 25-21, 25-19.
By Alexandra Clark
Watson called on sophomore middle blocker Alexis Pinson midway through the second set, and she managed to notch nine kills.
After the Cougars rallied to knot the match at 1-1, the Sun Devils prevented any further comeback in set three.
“We talked a lot about our system,” Reaves said. “Second game, we got away from that. That was all we did in the third game is stick to what we practice every day because without that it wasn’t working.”
While fighting six tie scores, it was Pinson whose kill sealed the 25-21 set three win.
At match point in set four, junior setter Cat Highmark once again set up Pinson, who then slammed the kill to seal the 25-19 victory and 3-1 match win.
Reaves hammered 17 kills to team with Johnson’s 17 digs en route to their final victory at home.
“Our two seniors deserve it so much,” freshman libero Jenny Teslevich said. “They give everything they have, their whole heart every single game, and they’re just the people we look up to. We wanted to win for our team and also win for them especially tonight.”
Reach the reporter at gregory.dillard@asu.edu
