ASU Volleyball: Sun Devil bench leads the way past Colorado

Despite another night of offensive struggles, the Arizona State (10-4, 2-1 Pac-12) volleyball team defeated the Colorado Buffaloes (8-5, 0-3) in four sets (31-29, 25-22, 16-25, 25-18).

“We are going to take a win, but it was an ugly win,” Arizona State head coach Sanja Tomasevic said of the win. “I am not going to sit here and pretend like we did our job.”

The intense first set of the match set the tone for the rest of the game. Extremely sloppy while teams exchanged leads. The Devils won the first set despite committing nine service errors, although it took 31 points. Jada Burse finished the set with six kills on 12 attacks.

The Sun Devils followed up the first set victory with a second set victory. Tomasevic switched up her offense in the second set. Freshman Iman Isanovic replaced a struggling Claire Kovensky on the outside. The switch up worked well for the Devils, as Isanovic finished the match with seven kills and a strong defensive performance.

Once again the Sun Devils struggled offensively, hitting the ball at only a .129 clip. Both Ivana Jeremic and Jada Burse had 30 or more attacks, but neither could provide the spark the offense needed. The spark came from junior Megan Beedie. The middle blocker came off the bench to finish with six kills on an impressive .636 hitting percentage.

“(Colorado) trapped us in situations we are not good at,” Tomasevic said of the offensive struggles. “It’s nice to have options off the bench, it makes my job easier.”

On the other side of the court, Colorado found success hitting the ball in the middle as well. Middle blocker Meegan Hart led the Buffaloes in kills, with 13 on 26 attacks.

Senior Callie Jones had a bounce back performance for the Devils. Against UCLA, Arizona State could only manage to finish with 23 assists in the shaky offensive performance. However, just five days later, Jones finished with 26 assists in the match.

“I was getting comfortable with the outsides and they read that,” Jones said. “In the later sets I had to get uncomfortable and pass to my middles.”

The Sun Devils will stay in Tempe for a match against the 20th ranked Utah team, who beat Arizona in four sets on Friday night. First serve will be at noon on Sunday.

“I’m excited for (the match against Utah),” Tomasevic said of their next match. “ I’m excited to see who will show up.”