TEMPE- The Arizona State Sun Devils women's volleyball team continues to excel on all cylinders, getting another win at home in the duel of the desert over the Arizona Wildcats.
There are 7,703 fans in attendance on Thursday night's game between the Sun Devils and Wildcats, which is the most in women's volleyball program history since 2013.
“I'm going to channel some inner Kenny (Dillingham) right now," Arizona State head coach JJ Van Niel said Thursday. "7,700 people, that was so sick. I'm so grateful for the fans. It was such a great environment. That was unbelievable. Our team played well, we got out of some scraps, and found a way to win ugly in a couple of sets.
"Really proud of those kids, especially because we were down with our backs against the wall in that last set. I think we were down 21-18 and came back, and we did some really good things. We're on task with assignments, served tough, got them in trouble, and pulled it out like we've been doing all year. It's really fun.”
The Sun Devils' defense held the Wildcats' hitting percentage to just .092 and had a season-high 17 blocks during the game.
Junior opposite hitter Noemie Glover had another monstrous game for Arizona State, recording 13 kills and four blocks in the win.
More importantly, her kill was the momentum shift for the Sun Devils, who came back from being down 21-17 to win the fourth set and game 25-22.
“I think a lot of it, especially for me, was just slowing down, taking a moment to just breathe," said Arizona State graduate middle blocker Colby Neal, who had a near double-double with 10 kills and nine blocks in the game.
"We had a lot of fast rallies too, so calming down and looking around and really understanding who's to my right and to my left and behind me, that helps me feel super confident. Our assistant, Shaughn (McDonald) always tells us that we're built to do hard things. I think it was a big thing for our mindset and that's what helped us come back.”
Arizona State senior hitter Sydney Henry also contributed on the offensive side in the win, in which she set to the deep corner for the kill, tying the set.
She also had 24 assists and split duties alongside teammate, sophomore setter Brynn Covell, who earned 13 assists as well.
“That's definitely the best part of my job," Henry said. "I love when blockers don't know what's coming next, and I love that I have all these options to make it that way. So it's all a part of our scheme too. Like once we get someone going early, like Colby, then they have to respect her. Then that opens up Noemie (Glover). Then they have to step back to her and then we can go to Bailey (Miller), so it gives us a lot of options and it's the most fun part of my job."
In preparing for this year's women's volleyball NCAA Tournament, Van Niel discussed how to build confidence in front of sold-out crowds at home and away games.
"The preparation for that tournament started with how we built our non-conference," Van Niel said Monday. "We built the hardest non-conference schedule since I've been here. So we played Pitt and Penn State, huge crowds right away. We played Texas at their place, which is always a sold-out crowd, a hostile environment.
"And so the idea was, 'hey, can we put our kids as uncomfortable as possible,' so that when it comes to turning the time they've already been around it and they're more comfortable being uncomfortable, it's really hard to replicate the stress of the tournament. So that's kind of that piece of it. Of course, in practice, we're trying to find ways to refresh on them, little things that we try to simulate those environments."
The Arizona State Sun Devils will travel to Colorado to face the No. 22-ranked Boulders for an afternoon game on Saturday.