Big games from Carmen Unzue and Megan Beedie helped improve ASU volleyball to 4-2 in Pac-12 play with a sweep of Washington (25-23, 25-17, 25-22).
A big home win can certainly be used as an understatement for the Sun Devils’ victory over Washington.
One week after sweeping No. 12 Oregon, the Sun Devils came home for another upset of a ranked opponent. The team defeated the 15th-ranked ranked Huskies (25-23, 25-17, 25-22) in yet another big win for the program.
With the victory the Sun Devils improved to 13-5 and 4-2 in Pac-12 play. ASU now sits tied for third in the Pac-12 with Washington. The Huskies dropped to 12-4 and 4-2 in conference play.
The Sun Devils were led by senior Carmen Unzue, who contributed eight kills and a block. The middle blocker was helped by Megan Beedie, who had seven kills on 11 attack attempts for a excellent hitting percentage of .636.
Although the first set looked close on paper, ASU didn’t trail a single time and continued that into the second set. There the Sun Devils dominated Washington with 13 kills and a hitting percentage of .278.
The Huskies committed nine errors and looked lost to the Sun Devil attack during the second set.
By the third set, Washington had begun to figure out the Sun Devils offense but couldn’t get a comeback started. The back and forth set gave the Huskies their biggest lead of the game 15-12, but ASU fought back into the set.
After losing a challenge, Washington called a timeout with the game tied 19-19. The goal: to freeze server Beedie, who led the team with three serving aces.
Their coach Sonja Tomasevic told her team to focus on the game and not the score.
“We don’t talk about score,” Tomasevic said. “We discuss what we need to be doing at that moment. Zero to zero or 19-19, we approach it all the same.”
From that point, the Sun Devils pulled out the win with a 25-22 victory in the set.
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One category where ASU showed significant improvement was in serving.
After struggling to serve in Friday’s loss to Washington State, the team finished with eight serving aces and only had five service errors. Four of those aces came in the first set, including a set winner from junior Callie Jones.
The Sun Devils only had a single ace and committed ten errors during that loss.
It was a complete change of script in the win over the Huskies.
Less mistakes and more focused play led to a hard fought victory over the Huskies, who took both matchups last year against the Sun Devils.
“I think we’re dialed in. A few games ago we talked about playing to win, not playing to lose,” said Beedie on the team’s performance. “I think we’re really being mindful of that.”
The Sun Devils go on the road to take on UCLA (8-5) Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.