TEMPE—Arizona volleyball head coach Rita Stubbs
said she was making changes this week. The biggest one was the offensive system the Wildcats would run. It had an impact, helping the team battle No. 8 ASU. The Sun Devils just had a little too much in a 3-1 (26-24, 25-14, 23-25, 25-16) victory.“I thought we competed,” Stubbs said. “I thought that we had goals, and each girl had a goal that they had to work to achieve for each for the match…I thought we were good. I was pleased with it.”
Arizona returned
to a 5-1 system after using a 6-2 for the entire season. Harmony Sample as the lone setter and Kennedy Osunsanmi the lone right side hitter. They both showed why they got the call.
Osunsanmi led the team with 11 kills on 25 swings. She didn’t make an error until the fourth set and ended with just one. She added two total blocks for a team high 12 points.
Sample had a double-double with 30 assists and 12 digs. Since she played in the front row for the first time, she was also able to contribute in attacking and blocking. She took advantage with three kills and three total blocks. One of her blocks was solo. She had five points.
It was a rare experience for Sample, who also ran the 6-2 at Notre Dame before transferring to Arizona. Earlier in the week, Stubbs said that they were working on the 5-1. Getting Sample comfortable, especially as an attacking threat, was a key part of that work.
“We’ve spent a lot of time with her working on the dump,” Stubbs said.
They also spent time getting her comfortable setting the slide for middle blocker Marina Vosloo. Stubbs said that they hadn’t been able to do it well earlier this season. That was one of several reasons they initially opted for the 6-2 offense.
Sample and Osunsanmi weren’t the only ones to have big impacts.
Carlie Cisneros came up big on defense and serve receive. The junior outside hitter had 19 digs and 27 serve receptions. She added seven kills and one total block for 7.5 points.
Destiny Ndam-Simpson struggled with hitting errors, but she still contributed nine kills, one ace, five digs, and one total block. Her 10.5 points were second on the team.
Stubbs employed the same plan she has all season when a player struggles. She took Ndam-Simpson out when her hitting errors began to pile up. That gave freshman Hayden Reeder an opportunity in the second, third, and fourth sets. The fiery rookie took advantage with four kills, three digs, and two total blocks. Her infectious nature was well-suited for taking on a crowd of 7,190 rowdy fans in Desert Financial Arena.
“Oh my gosh, it was amazing,” Reeder said. “It was a fun atmosphere. I mean, I’ve always loved big atmospheres. I’ve loved being chirped at. This was my atmosphere, and I was ecstatic when I got to go out there and play.”
For the third straight match, the Wildcats got a bit of a slow start, falling behind 4-1 in the opening set. In their last match at Baylor, those starts just snowballed. This time, it didn’t.
Arizona took the lead at 10-9 and led for most of the way. The Wildcats eventually earned two set points. Unfortunately for the ‘Cats, those points came in a difficult rotation.
In a 5-1, when the opposite hitter rotates to the back row, she is typically taken out in favor of a defensive specialist. That puts two small players on the floor and takes an attacker off the floor. That attacker was Osunsanmi, who had four kills on seven swings without an error at the time. She also had two block assists.
Arizona couldn’t score. ASU took the final four points of the first set to win 26-24. Three of the four points came on Wildcat hitting errors.
“I thought that there were times when we were going for balls overly aggressive,” Stubbs said.
The first set loss seemed to set the Wildcats back a bit as they quickly fell behind 8-3 in the second set. They cut the lead to 10-8, but they were never truly in the set. The 3-0 run that put them within two was the only time in the frame when UA won multiple points in a row. ASU put an end to it 25-14 to go up 2-0.
Arizona responded. The Wildcats started from the first point of the third. They did not trail until ASU took a lead at 9-8. The Sun Devils used a 5-1 run to go up 11-8 before Arizona put an end to it. Once again, the ASU run came when Osunsanmi had to sub out.
Arizona didn’t surrender. ASU had trouble stringing points together after that. The Wildcats earned two set points on a kill by Reeder. This time, they closed the deal for the 25-23 victory to keep the match going.
It was the last gasp. The ‘Cats got within two points a few times in the fourth, but ASU pulled away for good after the media timeout.
The match was a rebound after a disappointing showing at Baylor last week. While two of the four sets were lopsided in ASU’s favor, the other two were tight. Even in the sets they lost, the Wildcats battled in individual points. They just didn’t always go their way.
The ‘Cats now return home for a match against BYU before going back out on the road.
“The goal is that this is our standard, in terms of working hard and competing and being able to go the long haul and having our crowd cheering for us,” Stubbs said.
