Arizona State Volleyball Team Upsets No. 2 Cal For First Time Since 2002
BERKELEY, Calif. – Showing their stripes, the Sun Devil Volleyball Team pulled off yet another banner win for the 2010 season Wednesday night as they toppled the No. 2 Cal Bears 3-2 for their first win over Cal since 2002. The Sun Devils rallied to topple the possible Pac-10 champions in a 25-23, 14-25, 20-25, 26-24 and 15-7 grudge match to move to 13-17 overall and 7-10 in Pac-10 play while Cal falls to 24-3 overall and 14-3 in conference play.
Set one the Sun Devils came out with a mission as they jumped to take the lead with a .289 attack percentage as they came of the blocks blazing with Malia Marquardt and Erica Wilson leading the way with five and four kills apiece to lead ASU to a .289 average. The defense carried the rest of the weight with three blocks to hold a potent Cal offense to a .255 average for a 25-23 win to jump out 1-0.
Cal wasn’t sitting pretty on their home court though as they pushed it into high gear in the second set hitting only .237 as the Sun Devil D did its job with five blocks, but the offense couldn’t find a lucky roll in the set as they hit -0.56 in the set with Cal coming out for the equalizer 25-14.
It seemed grim for the Sun Devils after the third set as Cal came out to hit .378 with Tarah Murrey hitting .364 to lead the Bears in the set. Cal stepped up throw down two blocks as ASU’s offense couldn’t find it’s pulse to pull off the win giving Cal the 2-1 lead after three with a 25-20 win.
Though written off was exactly was ASU wasn’t in the fourth as they weren’t the best hitting team, but were scrappy enough to capitalize on Cal’s 13 unforced errors to knot the score 2-2 with a 26-24 win in the fourth.
The final set was all ASU who crushed a .458 attack percentage for 12 kills and never looked back. Erica Wilson was unapologetic with three kills for a .750 attack percentage while Sarah Reaves and Malia Marquart played their roles to the fullest as the Sun Devils ran off with a15-7 win in the fifth sealing ASU’s first win over the Bears since 2002.
The Sun Devils return to the court one last time this season as they set to face the No. 4 Stanford Cardinal this Friday night at 7 p.m. PT.
