Home Opener Sees Dominant Win for #14 Volleyball
Photo by: Katie MacCrory
Tempe – With many local elementary and middle school students in attendance, No. 14 Sun Devil Volleyball dominated in its home opener on Thursday afternoon, sweeping Prairie View A&M (25-7, 25-15, 25-17) in Desert Financial Arena to kick off the Webb-Burbridge Classic.
Notable Stats
- Arizona State (9-1) kicked off its home slate with a bang by beating Prairie View (2-10). The Sun Devils held the Panthers to a .082 clip, the fourth time this season ASU has held its opponents to a sub-.100 hitting percentage.
- The offense was evenly distributed for the Sun Devils as five had six or more kills, led by junior Bailey Miller with nine.
- Graduate libero Mary Shroll had 20 digs, her 12th-straight match in double figures dating back to last season. This is tied for the longest streak of her career. With this match, she has now surpassed 1,500 career digs, now at 1,507. Additionally, this was her 11th match in her career with 20 or more digs, third this season.
- Sophomore outside hitter Jillian Neal notched the first kills of her career, ending the afternoon with six. In the second and third sets, she played all the way around for the first time. She also had a career-high eight digs.
- The setting duties were split between graduate Argentina Ung and redshirt-freshman Brynn Covell, with Ung taking the first two sets and Covell doing the last. Ung had 23 assists and four kills, while Covell had a career high in assists (nine) and digs (10).
- Another sophomore saw significant playing time as middle blocker Hokulani Perez played for the second and third sets, earning a career-high six kills to go with her two blocks.
- Graduate middle blocker Savannah Kjolhede had six kills and a game-high four blocks in the win.
- This match was the Sparky's Kids Go to College game where local elementary and middle schools had classes attend to cheer on the Sun Devils.
Quotes
Arizona State Head Coach JJ Van Niel
General thoughts on the game:
"It's phenomenal to be home. We went to Nashville, San Diego, and all these cool trips, but it's nice to be home and sleep in our beds. It was great to see us execute, and we have some things to work on, but pretty flawless."
On Jillian Neal's performance:
"We see it every day in practice, she's great at serving and puts pressure on us with her attacking. She was shaky at first and settled in there after and had a nice performance today. It was great to see."
Importance of aggressive serving:
"That's really key for us. We're not the most physical team when you look at the other top teams in the nation. We have to rely on putting serving pressure on our opponents and get them out of their system, making it easier to defend. Of course, you have to have great backcourt defenders, and Mary crushed it today. When you knock them out it makes the defense a lot easier."
Local Schools in Attendance:
"I was excited. They usually do this for women's basketball, and to me, it's a slight moment of growth for volleyball. And 12 other buses didn't make it, so there would have been more schools in the crowd. I love it, we hope people come out and it was great to hear them celebrating, they did a good job."
Graduate Libero Mary Shroll
On how it was to see so many locals at the first home game of the season
"It means so much just knowing that I used to be one of those little kids. It's a surreal kind of moment. I think it's always cool when we're home and I know we were really excited after three weeks on the road. So it was really fun to play in front of screaming children. They were very excited but it only excites us. One of our big goals this year is to inspire the youth of Tempe, so it was really cool."
On how they're able to be aggressive at the net and efficient offensively
"We do a lot of offense work in practice. And I think our advantage is our tempo and then we run that so fast every single day, but a huge important key with that is serve and pass. Passing is so important for us to run at our speed. That's really how we can beat teams and beat blockers. Hitters have done an amazing job. JJ has been running offense-heavy practices and it's clearly worked to our advantage."
On how Argentina Ung has adapted into the offense
"Argentina came right in with a lot of confidence and she runs the court really, really well. She can read the game really well. Her volleyball IQ is really high, just being able to kind of see blockers. She herself is an offensive weapon. She'll get up and hit and dump. She came in right away ready to run that stuff and I think that comes too with a lot of experience on her end. She's made it far in the tournament as well. So she brought a lot of good things."
Sophomore Outside Hitter Jillian Neal
On how they're able to be aggressive at the net and efficient offensively
"Our setters just get us in really great positions. Both of them, Brynn (Covell) and Argentina (Ung), have great eyes. They can see the court, they see what's going on. So they get all three of us hitters when we're front row and back row when we're in one-on-one situations. They really do a good job of setting us up."
On how Argentina Ung has adapted to the team
"Even though I'm not a setter, I can imagine that when you have great connections with your hitters, you know who's going to put the ball away and like how everyone wants it. Just the way that she's interacted with us in the spring and us getting to know her and her getting to know us really well has really helped all the connections."
Set One: ASU 25, PVAM 7
The Sun Devils jumped out to a 7-1 run to start the opening set to force the Panthers into a timeout. ASU added to the lead, scoring ten to make it 17-5, including two kills from Miller and an ace from Covell. The Sun Devils then scored six in a row with two kills from Kjolhede and two aces from Geli Cyr to make it 23-6. Shania Cromartie capped off the first set 25-7 with a kill.
Set Two: ASU 25, PVAM 15
The second set began with close competition with the Panthers, tied at 9-9. ASU began to pull away, scoring six back-and-forth with the assistance of a kill from Kjolhede and a kill from Ung to make it 15-11 and force a timeout for PVAM. With the help of three kills and an ace from Neal, the Sun Devils made a 21-15 push. Up 22-15 and a timeout call by the PVAM shortly after, ASU had kills from Miller and Perez to get to set point, 24-15. An attack error on the Panthers gave ASU the set win, 25-15.
Set Three: ASU 25, PVAM 17
ASU reached a 7-2 lead over PVAM quickly, adding an ace for Covell and two kills for Perez. The Sun Devils then scored three to go up 10-4 with attacks from Roberta Rabelo and Neal. After kills from four different Sun Devil players and an error by the Panthers, ASU increased their lead 15-8. Kills from four different Sun Devils put ASU up 21-14, bringing a timeout from Prairie View. The Sun Devils would go on to win the game 25-17 after a kill from Cromartie finished it.
Final score: 3-0 win
Quick stats:
-2024 Volleyball Cumulative Statistics
-History against University of Memphis
Up Next
Arizona State will play Memphis on Friday night at 7 p.m. MST in Desert Financial Arena. It will be live on ESPN+.