ASU Volleyball: Sun Devils Struggle at Home Against Washington State

The Arizona State Women’s Volleyball team lost their third consecutive home game in straight sets to the Washington State Cougars on Wednesday night.

The Sun Devils once again struggled with an opponent that was much taller than they were, especially on the defensive side with blocking.

Coach Stevie Mussie’s team has always shown an ability to compete in games when they’re facing a tougher,better opponent but always seem to come up short in clutch situations.

“It’s never good to lose, I like how Ollie (Oluoma Okaro) continues to take big swings, I think Lexi (MacLean) is doing what Lexi does but we need to get her to understand how to measure things when they’re not in her favor,” said Mussie to begin the press conference.

Service errors are a huge cause of the Sun Devils lack of success, but it should be noted that there is only so much that can be done when the team faces a tall team.

“You can’t teach big, the longer the rallies go our kids get a little more tired and their kids are still 6’5”,” said Mussie in regard to Washington State’s team size.

Leading the way for the Cougars on the offensive end was senior outside hitter Kyra Holt, who has put up monster numbers all season. Holt finished the match with 13 kills, four blocks and a .393 hit percentage.

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For the Sun Devils, junior leader Oluoma Okaro filled the stat sheet for the best performance on the team as she finished with six kills and a .200 hit percentage.

Okaro said the team needed to find some consistency to win more matches.

“One thing that I think we struggle with on this team is consistency, we can compete really hard against a really good team that’s ranked, and then lose to a team that we can put up a good fight for, so I think it’s just consistency,” said Okaro.

The Sun Devils now face a tough matchup against the best team in the Pac-12, and a school that’s close to Mussie, the Washington Huskies.

Mussie won an NCAA title as a player with Washington in 2005, even though she medically redshirted due to an injury.

Mussie was looking forward for the matchup against her former school.

“I love Keegan (Cook, Washington’s head coach), love what he does with that school, what he’s done with the program since he took over. I’m a fan of the girls I don’t know as many of them as I used to, and I always wish Keegan the best except when he comes to town,” said Mussie.

Next: ASU Volleyball: Sun Devils Fall to Stanford

Friday’s game will take place at 8 p.m., and can be seen on Pac-12 Arizona.