The No. 10 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils took care of business today sweeping the Texas Southern Lady Tigers.
It was a shaky start for the Sun Devils as they found themselves down 5-0 to begin the match. After the first kill landed for them, they seemed to fall into a rhythm. They jumped out to a five point lead of their own and never looked back.
While the Sun Devils didn’t have the best hitting percentage in the first set, only hitting .200 as a team, what stuck out was the four service aces that the team had.
Ultimately, the Sun Devils would take the first set by a final score of 25-15, distancing themselves over the second half of the set.
In the second set, Texas Southern was able to hang around in the early going but the Sun Devils again built a lead going on a 8-3 run to widen the gap to a 13-7 deficit.
The Lady Tigers cost themselves a lot of points across the first two sets. Numerous net violations coupled with 20 attack errors and four service errors proved costly as the Sun Devils took the second set by a final count of 25-17.
For the first time in the match, ASU took the first point of the set. The team as a whole came out a lot stronger in the third jumping out to a quick 10-3 lead. Texas State then called a timeout to try and stop the bleeding.
Out of the timeout the Sun Devils came out just as strong. An Ace from Kylie Pickrell along with some greats sets from her as well gave the Sun Devils an 11 point lead, which they would never relinquish winning easily by a score of 25-8.
ASU head coach Jason Watson made it a point to get players who don’t normally have that much playing time, on the court. There were appearances from freshmen Jasmine Koontz and Blair Robalin, along with senior middle Andi Lowrance getting in and recording a couple kills in the match.
This is the first of two matches on the day for ASU as they gear up to take on the No. 6 team in the nation Illinois tonight at 7 p.m.
