ASU Volleyball: Sun Devils start 2-0 in Sparky Classic

LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 09: Arizona State Sun Devils mascot Sparky the Sun Devil performs during the team's quarterfinal game of the Pac-12 Basketball Tournament against the Oregon Ducks T-Mobile Arena on March 9, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Oregon won 80-57. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 09: Arizona State Sun Devils mascot Sparky the Sun Devil performs during the team's quarterfinal game of the Pac-12 Basketball Tournament against the Oregon Ducks T-Mobile Arena on March 9, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Oregon won 80-57. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

ASU volleyball improved to 9-2 on the season after two victories in this year’s Sparky Classic. The team was led by the attacking duo of Megan Beedie and Ivana Jeremic.

After dropping the first set this morning, the Sun Devils didn’t look back.

The team came back to defeat NAU in four sets and followed it with a victory over Gonzaga (25-20, 25-21, 21-25, 25-14). This moved the team to 9-2 this season with another victory for Sanja Tomasevic’s squad.

Ivana Jeremic led the charge with 12 kills and 17 digs against Gonzaga. And after yet another double-double, she now currently leads the Pac-12 conference with 11.

Tomasevic used the game to make some changes to her starting lineup. One of those included a decision to move Nicole Peterson from her standard position of setter to outside hitter.

“It just gives us more depth at the outside. Nicole is a lot easier to coach [on the inside], she loves it, she’s having a good time,” coach Tomasevic said on the change. “She’s a completely different player then when’s she playing setter.”

In Peterson’s place was Shelbie Dobmeier, who recorded 34 assists and 20 digs in the game.

Tomasevic also turned to two freshmen throughout the game, first to Paige Denton, who hasn’t played a lot this season but is known for her serving abilities, and later to redshirt freshman Danica Krstonosic, who hadn’t played at all the first game.

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Krstonosic came into the game after a stagnant third set and got the team going with a kill and a block in limited minutes.

The Sun Devils dominated early in the game, leading for the entirety of the first two sets. But the Bulldogs bounced back in the third. They started to set on a 5-0 run and used inside hitting to prevent ASU from taking a single lead.

For coach Tomasevic, she didn’t like what she saw from her team during that third set.

“[She told us] we need to start playing our volleyball and we need to stop making errors. We needed to extend rallies and be smart,” Jeremic said.

The team responded to the challenge and battled in a close final set. A turning point came when ASU challenged a point that was award to the Bulldogs for a ball being tipped. After further review, the call was reversed and the Sun Devils took a 8-4 lead.

From that point on it was only ASU. The team closed out the game with a decisive 25-14 win in the fourth set.

And it was just another dominant game from middle blocker, Megan Beedie.

Beedie converted 11 kills on 19 attack attempts along with a hitting percentage of .474. This, to go along with three of the team’s 13 blocks, showed how great of a game Beedie played.

“I don’t know what it was today,” she said. “I think I was more mindful of my approach and where I was on the court but the vibe on the court was really nice and just easy.”

The Sun Devils wrap up play in the Sparky Classic tomorrow night against Texas State at 7 p.m.

All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.