No. 21 Volleyball Gets Stylish Sweep Over Cal

By: Zach Wargo, Media Relations Graduate Assistant

TEMPE – No. 21 Sun Devil Volleyball never went out of style, claiming their 14th sweep of the season and eclipsing the 20-win mark with a sweep over the California Golden Bears (25-20, 25-19, 25-13) at Desert Financial Arena on Friday night.

In Arizona State's (20-3, 8-3 Pac-12) third-straight victory over Cal (14-8, 3-8 Pac-12), Marta Levinska proved that she was all too well with a team leading 18 kills, the only Sun Devil with double-digit kills on the night. Claire Jeter was dominant around the net by making sparks fly with a season-high eight blocks and added nine kills to her tally.

Notable Stats

• The Sun Devils obtained their first 20-win season since 2014, and it's the 11th 20-win season in ASU history. The 20 wins are tied for the most wins this century and is tied for the eighth-highest win total in program history.
• It marks the third-straight victory over the Golden Bears and improves ASU to a clean 5-0 record at home this season.
• Arizona State has 14 sweeps this season, tied for the second-highest total of three-set wins in program history.
• With senior opposite Marta Levinska's 18 kills on the evening, she continues to leave a permanent mark in the record book by moving up to ninth in program history with 1,361 career kills. She hit .350 and added seven digs.
• Senior middle blocker Claire Jeter was fearless after obtaining a season-high eight blocks, eclipsing the mark set against Utah on October 20. She also had nine kills on a .533 clip.
• Graduate setter Shannon Shields had five blocks on the evening, making it the third time this season she's had five or more blocks in a single match this season. She paced the offense with 33 assists, a match high. Additionally, she led the team in aces with three.
• Graduate middle blocker Maddie McLaughin stepped into the daylight with five blocks, the seventh time this year she's achieved the feat and the fourth time in the last five games she's had at least five blocks.
• On defense, graduate libero Mary Shroll and junior outside hitter Geli Cyr tied with 11 digs to lead the team. Cyr also added six kills. Junior Shania Cromartie also was solid on defense, adding a season-high eight digs.
• Friday's victory puts the Sun Devils one win away from 800 program victories.
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• 20+ WINS FOR SUN DEVIL VOLLEYBALL
  1982: 31-16/8-6/NCAA second round
  1986: 27-7/13-5 (3)/NCAA second round
  1980: 24-17/4-8
  1992: 23-8/11-7 (4)/NCAA second round
  1985: 22-13/2-6/NCAA first round
  1975: 21-8/13-5
  1973: 21-10/8-0 (1)/AIAW Championship
  2023: 20-3/8-3
  2014: 20-14/9-11 (T-7)/NCAA second round
  2012: 20-14/9-11 (T-6)/NCAA first round
  1993: 20-8/13-5 (T2)/NCAA first round
  1988: 20-13/8-10 (6)/NCAA first round
  
  Set One: ASU 25, Cal 20:
  The opening act of Tempe's Version featured a 4-0 run led by Jeter who, like an airplane flying, achieved three blocks in the first four points of action to open the match. The Bears responded by winning three of the next four points, but the Sun Devils won four-straight rallies, taking a 9-3 lead and prompting Cal to take a timeout. Following the timeout, the visitors managed to cut into the ASU lead at 14-12, but the Sun Devils never missed a beat by going on a 7-3 run led by kills by five different Sun Devils, taking a 21-15 lead. The Bears then won the next four of five points, forcing a Sun Devil timeout at 22-19, where later Levinska played her ace to win the set 25-20.
  
  Set Two: ASU 25, Cal 19:
  Entering the second part of the show, Cal was lighting on their feet by opening with a 6-1 lead, But the Sun Devils shook off the early deficit to tie the match at 8-8, led by three blocks by McLaughin and two kills from Levinska. The Sun Devils gained their first lead of the match, which would be forevermore, at 10-9, where a kill by Cyr forced Cal to take a timeout. Coming out of the break, the Sun Devils never missed a beat with two more kills from Levinska, and one apiece from Jeter and Cyr to go up 14-10, but the Bears forced a Sun Devil timeout at 14-12. Following the timeout, it was points and points going back and forth until the Sun Devils claimed the second set 25-19. 
• Set Three: ASU 25, Cal 13:
  Entering the final era of the show, the Sun Devils took off in a getaway car with a 7-2 run led by three kills by Levinska, forcing an early Cal timeout. Following the stoppage, the Sun Devils knew exactly what they were doing by extending their lead to eight, leading 13-5 in the set after two kills apiece by Cyr and Levinska. After three-straight points by the Bears, a 5-0 run by the Sun Devils put them ahead 18-8. taking advantage of Cal's errors. Later, a second timeout by Cal was called with ASU leading 21-10. Eventually, the Sun Devils called endgame, claiming the match and set, 25-13.
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Up Next:
The Sun Devils will shift their attention to a top-25 matchup against No. 3 Stanford on Sunday at Mullett Arena in the Halloween game. The match starts at 12 p.m. MST and can be seen on Pac-12 Arizona.
 

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Quotes:
Head Coach JJ Van Niel 
Opening Statement:
"First of all it was great to be home after being on the road for so long, especially after the two-week road trip with the very disappointing loss. I felt like we came out ready to play even though our offense wasn't where we wanted it to be in the first couple of sets, but it started humming in the third. I thought our defense was rock solid and we were really on point with our serving. Overall we did a really good job executing the stuff we needed to versus the last time we played (Cal in Berkeley). Really proud of the team for the way they came out in the third set. We say 'foot on the gas,' and they did that." 

On tonight's mentality:
"I never talk about us being ranked. I don't think I've referred to that once this season. The rankings are what they are, but for us it's one match at a time. The theme this week was taking advantage of situations that we weren't taking advantage of. Our serving is generally pretty tough and I've felt like recently we had plenty of opportunities to take advantage of tough serving and we just didn't. We normally start our scout on Tuesdays, but this Tuesday we watched clips from our past few matches and said 'look at this play.' Every time you lose one that you should've won, it's a two-point swing. I think the theme was out-of-system blocking and captalizing on scoring we whey serve teams out of system. That's what we were focused on this week." 

On the block and serve tonight:
"I think it's always rewarding when you spend a bunch of time working on things and see them pan out when you're playing. We spent a lot of time this week on our system defense and defending Cal, so it was really nice to see us put pressure on the service line, getting them out of system and blocking them. It was great and I'm sure that gave us confidence."

On having 20 wins:
"When we built the schedule, we talked about how our goal was to make the tournament and that 20-22 wins is the number we'd have to make. It's pretty nice that we've made it and we still have half the Pac- 12 season to go. I didn't necessarily expect this but I did expect to get to 20. That was what we set as our goal. It's rewarding and awesome. I think it's really cool because of how hard all the kids have worked. Since I've walked in on day one, they have been such an unbelievable group and I'm really proud to be here and lead here in my first year here." 

On Taylor Swift theme night:
"I want the expectation of this program to draw 5,000 people every night. I don't see why we can't with the population and volleyball community we have here. It starts with our marketing and getting people excited. The 942 Crew was there and it was awesome. We love when they come to our matches. I think theme nights are fun because they get people excited. At the end of the day you want to get people in the seats to show them what we can do. I think volleyball is a really fun game to watch and we have some great players and I think fans get excited."

Graduate setter Shannon Shields:
On getting their bounce-back win: 
"I think what we practiced defensively, the first four balls (of the match) getting blocked, that's what we worked so hard in practice, to get all the way to the line to make sure they can't tool us. Claire and Maddie closing the block was huge. I feel like they (Cal) couldn't do anything. We stopped them in every manner." 

On relying on each other for blocking:
"We are roommates! I think she knows she can get really close to my left arm and I'll set up the block in a way she can drop her left arm really well and I can cut their line. These last few games I've been going all the way to the line and she'll say, 'I'm gonna be there right next to you.' Also it's probably good that Claire is the loudest on the team so she'll say it's high, it's high or it's off, it's off. If we continue to talk to each other it just makes life so much easier, so I think we have a good thing with that, yell at each other… we got this!" 

On bouncing back from the last loss:
"Trusting each other, I think there's no doubt in our minds that we can always play better when we face a loss, we get in the gym no one's mad, no one's frustrated. We have to move on, we have to work on what we have to work on as a team. I think as a team we play so well and why we are so successful is because we lean on each other and we shake off that last loss easily."

On approaching Sunday's match against Stanford:
"Balls to the wall, there's nothing to lose. Go out swinging, that's what we have been saying with Stanford. There's no reason why we shouldn't just give it all out. We make a mistake who cares move on, they're top five. We were playing too timid that first round, not swinging enough.I feel this time around, no fear."

On volleyball movement nationally:  
"I wish I had another year, that's how I feel, but I think volleyball deserves it. It's been one of the top-five programs I feel like with schools. We never got that recognition as being one of the top five programs and I feel like it's spreading like wildfire. Everyone loves to watch it, it's a fast-paced game and, like I said, I wish I had another year to see where it keeps going."

Senior middle blocker Claire Jeter:
On getting their bounce back win:
"After getting swept, we wanted to come back better than ever, especially at home where we have to defend our court, so it was really fun, a really great game for us. I believe that we went in with the right intentions and we knew what we needed to fix. They picked on our weak spots so we knew we needed to fix that. Defense was a lot better, offense's blocking was phenomenal compared to our last couple of games. I think that played a really big part in our defense being able to play around the block and when we needed to put balls down, we really did. I think Shannon did a great job setting so that was awesome."     

On relying on each other for blocking:
"We have been focusing on that a lot in practice. We do a lot of ball, setter, ball, hitter drills, which is just a lot of blocking against an offense that's right on the other side and we pair it up to what a team is gonna run. It's really helpful for us. We do a lot of out-of-system stuff. I think when we worked on that a lot, we did a lot better today for us to close and feel comfortable."   

On moving on from the last loss:
"You can't dwell on your mistakes in a game, you can't dwell on your losses after games so I think when we go into our next game, it's always focus on what's ahead. The next practice is always focused on the next team, don't think about what happened in the past. When we learn from our mistakes and make them better, I think overall it's easy for us to bounce back from stuff like that cause if we continue to dwell on stuff, it's not gonna get any better, it's only gonna make it worse. So I think if we focus on the little things, that it'll be fine."  

On approaching Sunday's match:
"We have nothing to lose, we are gonna play them how teams play us now. They have nothing to lose, there's no reason to come out scared. They're on top and it's time to pull them down a little. We can easily go out swinging. I mean there's no reason to play scared. We have great defenders behind us. We have people that are gonna get balls up for us, and I think if we keep playing scared against them because they're huge, if we tip like we do it's gonna be easy for them to run. They already think they are gonna come in and beat us and we have nothing to lose."

On volleyball movement nationally: 
"It's really awesome. I think the Nebraska football field game was insane and I think people have been waiting for that to happen in a long time. It's still growing and I think that's cool to say that was a really awesome opportunity for us as a sport to show that we really can bring in a really good fan section and I think it's awesome I can't wait to see how much it keeps going."

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