(Photo: ASU Athletics)
The Sun Devils defeated the Texas A&M Aggies in the first round of the NCAA national tournament in four sets, (22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-22).
Sophomore Jazzmin Babers helped her team fight back in the fourth set as the score was almost always within two points. They eventually tied the game up at 21-21 and it was either teams game. Unfortunately for them, junior outside hitter Macey Gardner and junior middle blocker Whitney Follette had two kills apiece to put the game away indefinitely.
The Sun Devils got off to a slow start in spite of quality play. They lead the Aggies in all stats except for two (A&M had five more digs and the Sun Devils had five missed serves in the first game). The Sun Devils ended up dropping the game by three points and it looked like the Aggies had all of the momentum going into the second set.
ASU came firing back in the second set as they had a commanding lead, as they were up 22-15. Letting off the gas a little bit the Aggies started their comeback and made the point differential to four. ASU ended up taking the set 25-20.
ASU was not done there, as they continued to beat down on the Aggies and led by six points for most of the third set. The reason for their sudden success is junior outside hitter Macey Gardner’s 5 kills and the teams .290 hitting percentage. They also did not miss a serve and took the set by a dominating nine points.
Throughout the match the Aggies struggled to find the court as they had 46 kills on 133 attempts. They have been known throughout the season for being middle dominant and it carried through today’s game, as Babers and junior Shelby Sullivan were set 56 times. Babers led the team in kills as she had 13, but she also put in work on the defensive side with eight blocks.
With their four-set win, the Sun Devils will move to the second round in the first time under head coach Jason Watson. Their next opponent will be tomorrow at 7 p.m., against the winner of 2-seed Texas and Northwestern State.
