Volleyball falls to Arizona

<p>A solid opening set with seven tie scores for a nail-biting ending proved to be the highlight Friday night as the ASU Volleyball team was unable to rally back against in-state rivals, Arizona to open the State Farm Territorial Cup. The Wildcats swept the Sun Devils 26-24, 25-19 and 25-12 to drop ASU to 5-10 overall and 0-3 in Pac-10 play while UA advances to 11-4 overall and 1-2 in conference play.</p><separator></separator><p>Set one saw the Sun Devils put the work in scrapping for every point, but UA took the first point of the set and never relinquished the lead, even with ASU pushing seven tie scores at the end of the set and forcing UA to go extras with Curtsy Jackson and Tiffany Owens stepping up for UA to take a 26-24 lead.</p><separator></separator><p>The second set saw Arizona come out to compose their offense more as they jumped out again on ASU 10-7 at one point before ASU pulled it together to tie it at 12-12. That was all ASU had in the tank though as UA ran off with the rest of the set leading by as much as six at point, which is where they finished ahead of ASU in set two, 25-19 to head into the break down 0-2.</p><separator></separator><p>Set three the Sun Devil attack couldn’t find it’s footing while Arizona’s escalated with the Wildcats slashing ASU with a .379 attack percentage with Courtney Karst swinging a nasty .400 with five kills to lead UA. ASU didn’t help their cause with 12 unforced errors to throw off the attack and leave the door open for UA to swing in for a 25-12 win and the sweep.</p><separator></separator><p>The Sun Devils will hit the road again next weekend as Pac-10 play rolls on with ASU facing Oregon and Oregon State next Friday and Saturday in Eugene and Corvallis, Ore.</p>