The ASU volleyball team almost pulled off the impossible Saturday night.
After being down for most of the night, they battled back and pushed the fourth game to the brink against a top-ranked Pac-12 opponent.
The Sun Devils (4-13) were down by ten points against No. 5 USC (13-3) in the fourth set. USC just needed four more points to end the match.
Then ASU got a side out and control of the serve. They went on a seven-point scoring run. At the end of the game the Sun Devils managed to tie the score at 24.
The crowd was electric as the Sun Devils tried to push the match to five games. But after a close call, ASU lost the match 29-27.
Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Ashley Kastl had another impressive performance with 23 kills in the USC match. Kastl said that her team has a ton of heart which helped them stage the comeback.
“You don’t want to get intimidated, we were down ten in a match,” Kastl said. “It’s something that you have to dig deep inside yourself and have to make a commitment to yourself and your team saying I don’t care how far we are down, we are going to come back.”
ASU started out on a good note, winning the first set. But UCLA battled back to take the next three sets to win the match 3-1.
The Sun Devils did lose the match but coach Jason Watson said the team learned some good lessons against USC.
“I felt like (against UCLA) we were worried about what happened before and what happened next,” Watson said. “In game four we learned a pretty valuable lesson that most important play is the one that we are in.”
The ASU defense stepped up against USC. Sophomore libero Stephanie Preach had an incredible performance to combat the USC offense.
Sophomore libero Jenny Teslevich said Preach’s efforts gave a mental boost to the whole team.
“Stephanie Preach had 43 digs and that’s amazing.” Teslevich said. “Everyone was fired up, I didn’t want to lose and I don’t think anybody else did either. This is a big turning point for us and we can only go up.”
ASU falls to UCLA
On Friday night the second ranked UCLA (14-3) Bruins came to Tempe and swept the Sun Devils in straight sets.
The Bruins had multiple hitters that over six feet tall, but the Sun Devils were not intimidated and tried to attack the Bruins defensively.
Senior middle blocker Sonja Markanovich rose to the challenge and defended the net well with two block assists.
“I think we did a really good job in the beginning of being on tendencies and staying on track of where they were,” Markanovich said. “We focused really hard and I think we did well, hopefully it continues on.
Watson said that the team needed to play consistently the entire match to beat UCLA. He said it is something that the team needs to improve on to beat Pac-12 opponents.
“We got be able to play well longer,” Watson said. “It’s frustrating for all of us because we see that return in practice and we get out here in the match and there’s this disconnect.”
Reach the reporter at ehubbard@asu.edu
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