NCAA volleyball: Arizona State serves up 2nd-round exit for BYU

Estimated read time: 4-5
minutes

PROVO — The Big 12 is about to get a lot more difficult for No. 16 BYU women’s volleyball.

At least, if Arizona State can duplicate its once-every-three-decades success from Friday night.

Marta Levinska poured in 17 kills, 10 digs and five aces as the fifth-seeded Sun Devils advanced to the Round of 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nearly 30 years with a 25-20, 25-21, 25-21 win over future conference mate BYU.

“This was an expectation of ours. This was a goal that we set, and we set it a couple of years ago; I’m glad it finally paid off,” said ASU’s Claire Jeter, who had a team-high five blocks. “It was expected, and I think we have more in us.”

Just 24 hours after wining their first NCAA Tournament game since 2014, the Sun Devils advanced to the Round of 16 for the first time in the rally scoring era by holding Erin Livingston had 10 kills and eight digs while Whitney Bower distributed 28 assists with seven digs and five kills for BYU.

Arizona State is headed to the Round of 16 — and a matchup with Pac-12 foe Stanford in the final year before the two longtime conference mates depart for the Big 12 and ACC, respectively.

For BYU, the postseason ends in the second round in back-to-back seasons and the third time in five years amid a sprawling run of 12-straight appearances.

“I’m proud of this team, of Erin, of Whitney, of everything that they’ve done this season in our inaugural Big 12 season,” BYU coach Heather Olmstead said. “The highs, the lows; they stuck together. I thought they fought well tonight … and I’m super proud of our entire team, but for sure Whitney and Erin.”

Kate Prior added seven kills and six blocks for the Cougars (25-7), and Whitney McEwan-Llarenas had seven kills and three blocks for a BYU team that served just two aces with 39 digs to pace an attack that hit just .186 in the straight-set loss — the Cougars’ lowest hitting percentage since Oct 26, a 3-0 loss at Kansas State.

“I think when you can put the serving pressure on, it makes it so they aren’t in system,” said ASU coach JJ Van Niel, the first-year head coach whose team served seven aces with 34 digs. “I thought our players were just flying around the court. … It was a well executed plan.”

Levinska served consecutive aces to lift the Sun Devils to a 12-9 early advantage in the first set, then struck a kill off the block for a 20-16 victory for the 1-0 lead.

Arizona State held the Cougars to just .118 hitting in the first set, limiting Livingston to three kills on 11 swings as Levinska compiled eight kills en route to a 25-20 first-set victory.

“Winning the first set always gives you the confidence boost you need,” said Levinska, the senior from Latvia. “I think that just told us we can win. We knew they didn’t like the pressure we were giving them. It was definitely one of our keys, to win that first set.”

It got worse.

The Sun…