ASU Volleyball: Sun Devils take a step back

Coming off of an emotional and historical victory against No. 17 Santa Clara, the Arizona State women’s volleyball team took on Portland State in the second match of the Boise State Classic.

Riding momentum carrying over from the previous match, ASU won the first set against Portland State 25-18. However, as the match wore on, the offense broke down, allowing the Vikings to prevail in four sets 25-18, 27-29, 18-25, 22-25.

Senior outside hitter Cassidy Pickrell led the team with 14 kills while junior middle blocker Oluoma Okaro continued her hot streak with nine kills, six blocks and two service aces. Pickrell also contributed nine digs.

The offense came out firing in the opening set, converting over 50 percent of its attacks with just one error. It was quite possibly the most flawless set of volleyball ASU has played this season.

After opening up the second set with a lead and continued consistency on offense, the Sun Devils hit a rough patch that they never recovered from.

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The offense went flat and the Vikings stormed back to take the set, equalizing the match. The problem shifted from attacking errors to not converting kills in this set as ASU only capitalized on 14 of their 47 attacks during the set.

With the match still tied, ASU crumbled in the third set and was unable to recover. The team only registered 10 kills and fell behind early in the set. The change in momentum was clearly noticeable as this looked nothing like the team that had unseated Santa Clara hours before.

Drained and broken, the Sun Devils conceded the fourth set and the match. The ASU attacking percentage dipped down to .135 as they couldn’t generate a way to put points on the scoreboard.

Now 1-1 in the Boise State Classic, ASU will face host school Boise State in an attempt to rebound in its nonconference finale Saturday at 11 a.m.