Volleyball fired up for part two of the 'Duel in the Desert'
The Sun Devil Women’s Volleyball Team (13-12 overall, 3-10 Pac-10) will take to the road again this weekend as they head down to Tucson to finish off the 2009 ‘Duel in the Desert’ as they set to take on in-state rival, No. 18 Arizona (17-7, 6-7 Pac-10) Friday night at 7 p.m. in the McKale Center.
Follow The Sun Devils Live!:
ASU’s fans can follow all of ASU’s home matches, as well as some road matches, via the free statistical GameTracker system at www.thesundevils.com. Just click on the Women’s Volleyball schedule and click on the live stats link!
Recapping Last Weekend:
Against Oregon State: The Sun Devils came out of the gates ready to rattle the cage on Friday night as Sarah Reaves immediately exploded for five kills with Cat Highmark showing the way with 13 assists to make the magic happen as ASU hit .433 in the first set to send a message with a 25-16 win, which bodes well for ASU as they headed into the match 10-0 when winning the first set. This match was no different as ASU didn’t let up for the second set with Sarah Reaves swinging like she was unstoppable with seven kills in the second set as the D held it down at the night with 2.5 more blocks, to push their tally to 7.5 blocks after just two sets.
The Beavers weren’t going away quietly though, as Sun Devil errors let them right back in the set that they snaked away from ASU 25-23 to tie it at 1-1 going into the break. The Sun Devils weren’t ready to let this one slip away though as they came out of the break to hit .238 with Reave’s six kills leading the way again. OSU hung tough pushing four tie scores and two lead changes though, but in the end ASU grabbed set three with a 25-20 win. ASU only needed four though as Ashley Kastl slammed four kills down on the table with the Sun Devil D posting 4.5 total blocks as ASU ran off with a 25-13 win in the fourth set to finish it off. The win was also a bench mark in Head Coach Jason Watson’s career as he collected his 100th career coaching win in Corvallis.
Against No. 14 Oregon: The Sun Devils took to the court in Eugene but couldn’t seem to find the offensive rhythm they had against Oregon State the night before as they broke even in the first set with only eight kills and eight errors to give UO a 25-16 first set win. The Sun Devils pieced together more offense in the second set only to see the Ducks step it up with a .324 attack percentage and five blocks to hold the Sun Devils at bay in the second set as well with another 25-16 win. Three was the magic number for Oregon as they hit .333 in the third set as well as posting five blocks again to stifle the Sun Devil offense who managed to finally put their offense in sync, but found the effort too late as they fell 25-20 to complete the sweep.
Scouting This Weekend’s Competition/Series History:
No. 18 Arizona: The Sun Devils will face their in-state rival the Arizona Wildcats for the 77th time in program history, holding a slight 40-36 edge over the ‘Cats. In Pac-10 history, ASU is 26-20 over UA with Arizona leading the series in Tucson with a scant 12-11 record.