In just its third home game of the season, ASU volleyball faced no. 18 Washington State in hopes of earning its first home win and its second conference win.
Despite never trailing in any set by more than six, the Sun Devils got neither.
The Sun Devils (8-13, 1-8 Pac-12) fell in straight sets by final tallies of 25-21, 25-18, and 25-20, as the Cougars (16-5, 6-3 Pac-12) used a remarkable size advantage to walk out of Wells Fargo Arena with a victory Wednesday night.
“It’s never good to lose, that’s for sure,” first-year head coach Stevie Mussie said. “I like how we always continue to take big swings...but the truth of the matter is you have to be able to score.”
Despite losing a close first set, ASU didn’t shy away from the road favorites. Although a tightly-contested, back-and-forth second set still didn’t go the Devils’ way, they never failed to keep things close with one of the Pac-12’s elite.
The third set went similarly, proving that WSU’s talent simply overpowered ASU in the straight sweep, but there were certainly positives the Sun Devils could take away in their hard-fought defeat.
Height was certainly a factor, as each of Washington State’s six starters checks in above six feet tall, maxing out with the 6-foot-5 junior Casey Schoenlein. As for ASU, the tallest Sun Devil stands at just 6-foot-2.
The size discrepancy proved to be a huge disadvantage for ASU, as the Cougars led 33-31 in the kill category and, more impressively, 13-7 in the block category.
“You can’t teach big,” Mussie said. “The longer the rallies go, our kids get a little more tired, and their kids are still 6-5.”
A dominant force and clear example of the height advantage for the Cougars was 6-foot-1 senior outside hitter Kyla Holt, who led all players with 13 kills and a stellar hit percentage of .393. 6-foot-3 middle blocker Taylor Mims also had an impressive seven blocks and six kills for WSU.
As for the Sun Devils, sophomore outside hitter Lexi Maclean led the way with nine kills while junior middle blocker Oluoma Okaro tallied six kills and a team-high hit percentage of .200.
While size was a problem, unforced errors certainly didn’t help ASU either — a dismal .054 hit percentage in the first set, .031 in the third set, and an overall mark of .040 on top of 27 total errors proved to be detrimental for the Devils, who were up against a far more disciplined WSU team.
“It is one-hundred percent mental,” Mussie said. “Going back there, having a zone, and not being confident in your abilities. They serve in practice sometimes and I’m like, ‘wow, now they’re ready.’ And then we get in the match and we get nervous.”
“One of our goals was definitely to have more aces than errors,” she added. “We were way off that.”
The search for a first home win won’t get any easier for ASU, which has a quick turnaround before taking on Pac-12-leading, seventh-ranked Washington Friday night. Mussie, a recent Washington volleyball graduate, continues to hammer home the same message going into the arguably toughest game on the schedule.
“Against those Washington Huskies, huh?” she joked. “The number-one team in the Pac-12 coming into town, the message is that you have to want it. You have to want to win for each other. I think at times people get complacent and focus on themselves and all these extra things. If we focus on what you need to do, the team is going to be good.”
Reach the reporter at jeff.griffith21@asu.edu or follow @Jeff_Griffith21 on Twitter.
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