No. 19 ASU took a 2-0 lead over Utah and the game looked to be coming to a close. ASU was outplaying the Utes in every aspect of the game and Utah looked outmatched.
Utah stormed back with a 25-16 third set victory and a tightly contested 25-23 fourth set victory to force a game five.
“What a conference that we play in,” ASU coach Jason Watson said, referring to the fact that Utah is an unranked team. “I thought we were playing some really nice volleyball… and then as it happens, you create this window for your opponent in game three and it gives them life.”
ASU’s torrent pace on defense slowed down as Utah accelerated its own. Dig after dig, Utah hung around in the points and made fewer hitting errors.
In the first two sets, Utah had 13 errors. They had nine in the next three.
It goes beyond Utah’s errors, Watson said. He said his team was playing timidly and not taking advantage of opportunities.
During the first two sets, it worked out fine. ASU’s conservative play kept them in points and forced Utah to make errors. Utah stopped making errors and Watson said that though he preaches patience, the team needs to find a balance between waiting for their hit and being aggressive.
“If you have your shot take your shot, if you don’t have your shot then let’s not air out. Let’s make our opponents have to play,” he said. “On the other end of that, I thought that we had some chances to go take our shot that we chose not to and because of that the rallies just kept getting longer and longer and longer and nobody would go hit.
In the end, ASU snuck away a set five victory, but it came down to a little Macey magic.
The teams were trading scores in set five and ASU held a slim 13-12 lead. Utah got a strong hit that was deflected off an ASU defender behind her own baseline and toward the sign separating the playing area from the courtside seats straight behind the line of play.
Gardner and freshman libero Halle Harker bolted back, with Harker slightly ahead. She dove near the sign and managed to tap the ball up.
Gardner, racing behind her, contorted her body while on the move. Getting all the momentum she could, she wound up her arm and hit the ball. She wasn’t quite backward, but she was at perhaps parallel with the net, maybe forty feet away.
The ball got over the net. Utah had another chance and set it to the middle. Gardner, racing back onto the field of play, dove for the hit. She saved it again. A volley later, she made another diving save.
Sophomore outside hitter BreElle Bailey got the kill, pushing ASU’s lead to 14-12 and giving them the momentum.
ASU won the set 15-13.
“That play, to me, is what Mace is kind of about. She’s going to go and do those things to help the team and she’s not going to make a big deal out of them,” Watson said.
Gardener's thoughts mirrored those of her coach.
“I don’t know what to say,” she said, laughing when she heard Watson’s praise of the play. “We had a good touch on it, Halle ran it down and I was just somehow in the right spot and put some weight behind the ball… it was a nice timing, it just helped propel us into the last point.”
It was a huge play for the game and a huge play for ASU. This was the first time ASU’s beaten Utah since 2011 (five consecutive losses) and gives ASU a chance to get its first in-conference sweep of the season.
“That was one of the best rallies I think I’ve seen this team ever play,” Watson said.
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Logan_Newsman
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