A night after upsetting No. 11 Oregon, ASU fell to unranked Oregon State in three sets (20-25, 20-25, 22-25).
“I thought they were good last year, everybody looks at their record and discredits them,” ASU coach Jason Watson said on Tuesday.
All three sets were extremely close; OSU didn’t lead by more than five at any point in the evening. However, ASU took the lead only nine times the entire match. The last time they had the lead was when the score was 4-5 in the third set.
ASU just fell apart at the end of each set.
In set one, the Sun Devils trailed 19-18 before junior setter Bianca Arellano had a serve error and then OSU hit an ace. ASU lost the set 25-20.
In set two, the score was tied at 19 before a service error by junior middle blocker Whitney Follette. OSU again won the set 25-20.
After losing their early lead in set three, the Sun Devils stuck close but trailed by two to three points for the majority of set. ASU fell behind 19-15 and couldn’t make a comeback, losing 22-25.
Junior outside hitter Macey Gardner finished with 13 kills, her sixth-lowest of the season. She hit just .143.
The leading hitter was OSU’s freshman outside hitter Mary-Kate Marshall, who Watson said is a candidate for freshman of the year. Marshall had 19 tonight and 336 on the year.
“She’s really good, she’s got some range,” Watson said.
He called her a “missing piece of the puzzle” and someone who gives OSU a scoring option that they missed last season.
Sophomore outside hitter BreElle Bailey continued struggling. She has hit as many errors as kills in four of the last five matches, and in the outlier, she had five kills and four errors. Tonight, she had three of each on 16 attempts.
“It’s just something that every athlete goes through, I think,” she said on Tuesday.
She said she’s been losing confidence and has had setter-hitter issues with Arellano.
The setter hasn’t had trouble connecting with other targets, as Arellano recorded 35 assists and assisted on almost 90 percent of ASU’s kills. She had another double-double, digging 14 balls.
Freshman libero Halle Harker had a team-high 18 digs. The only player with more was OSU’s junior libero Darby Reeder, who had 22.
Losing to an unranked school may kill ASU’s momentum in the rankings after defeating No. 11 Oregon, and every win is crucial in a conference like the Pac-12. ASU comes back to Tempe with a 15-7 overall record and a 5-5 Pac-12 record.
“It’s not an easy road trip, another one,” Watson said. “There are no easy road trips.”
Reach the reporter at Logan.newman@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Logan_Newsman
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