Mental errors and poor middle defense plagued ASU volleyball in a five set loss to the 15th-ranked USC Trojans.
The Sun Devils fell just short of another top-15 win in the Pac-12 this season. The team was defeated by USC (25-23, 21-25, 18-25, 25-23, 9-15) in a five set marathon that nearly spanned three hours.
ASU dropped to 13-7 overall and 4-4 in the Pac-12 while USC moved to 13-5 and 5-2 in the Pac-12. Here are some takeaways from last night’s loss to the Trojans.
Hitting
Although the team nearly ousted USC at home, one category where the Trojans had a clear margin was hitting.
The Trojans had a hitting percentage of .256 compared to the .223 of the Sun Devils. The Trojans also recorded a higher margin of kills (74) and service aces (7). ASU managed nearly the same amount of attack errors, but several of the key errors came in the third and fifth sets of the match, both of which the team lost.
The Sun Devils were led the duo of Claire Kovensky and Ivana Jeremic who combined for 32 kills. Kovensky was a positive, converting 17 kills on 39 attempts and had her best performance of the season. But overall, the Sun Devils struggled with the size and length of the Trojans, who recorded eight blocks and foced many attacking errors.
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Defense
The biggest issue for the Sun Devils came in defending the middle of the court and the Trojans took full advantage of their defensive miscues.
USC shifted its offensive focus after only hitting .114 in the first set and was able to convert at a high percentage in the second and third sets to take a 2-1 set lead after three. The Trojans used junior Khalia Lanier, who had a game high 29 kills, and a middle focused attack to push the Sun Devils to the early deficit.
Another spot where the Trojans picked the Sun Devils apart was when the team shifted Jeremic to right back to shift the offensive focus to Kovensky. There, USC forced errors from Jeremic, who struggled to dig from that position and looked lost at times defensively.
The Sun Devils return to Tempe next week to face Utah and Colorado. ASU will hope to break from their third defeat in four matches.