Volleyball falls to Cal

With freshman Danica Mendivil matching Sarah Reaves’ 12 kills on the afternoon, the ASU Volleyball team faced-off against a potent eighth-ranked Cal Golden Bears who entered the match with a perfect 10-0 record. While the Sun Devils hung tight in each of the sets, falling in a tough 25-23, 25-21 and 26-24 loss t0 drop to 5-9 overall and 0-2 in Pac-10 play. The Bears advance to 11-0 on the year as well as holding a 2-0 record.

Set one saw ASU come out to rock the Bears a little bit with six lead changes and three lead changes with Danica Mendivil anchoring the offense for ASU with five kills for a .500 attack percentage while Erica Wilson swung a perfect 1.000 with two kills. While the Sun Devils out blocked the Bears 2-to-1 the effort fell just short as ASU wasn’t able to match Cal’s .378 hitting percentage to lose 25-23.

Set two saw ASU’s offense stumble a bit, with 10 unforced errors making the difference in the match with the Sun Devils only posting a .111 attack percentage and the Bears finally matching ASU at the net with three blocks on each side to give Cal the 2-0 advantage headed into the break with a 25-21 win.

ASU showed some heart in the third set, even after Cal opened up a early lead, which saw the Sun Devils close the gap quickly to force 10 tie scores throughout the set. While ASU stepped up at the net with three blocks to Cal’s two, they couldn’t contain Tarah Murrey who swung .600 in the set with nine kills as the Sun Devils pushed Cal to extra point but fell short 26-24 to complete the sweep.

The Sun Devils now hit the road for the first time in four weeks with part one of the Annual ‘Duel in the Desert’ on the agenda as ASU faces in-state rival Arizona in Tucson next Friday night at 7 p.m. The match will be broadcast on tape delay by Fox Sports Net.