University of Washington
Arizona State
Mussie Leads UW to Sweep of ASU
October 04, 2007 | Volleyball
Oct. 4, 2007
SEATTLE - Stevie Mussie racked up 19 kills in leading the No. 8 Washington volleyball team to a sweep of visiting Arizona State in Pac-10 action on Thursday night at Bank of America Arena. Washington remains undefeated on the season at 15-0 and 4-0 in the Pac-10, while ASU drops to 9-9 and 1-4 in Pac-10 play. Game scores were 31-29, 30-24, 30-27.
On a night where the Huskies didn't have their best game, it was Mussie who carried the team. She had a match-best 19 kills in leading UW in kills for the third time in their last four games.
"She had a lot of good, tough swings tonight," said UW head coach Jim McLaughlin. "She has had a good couple weeks of practice and is getting better and better every game."
Neither team hit well on the night, with UW hitting a season-low .243 and ASU hitting just .123. Both teams struggled right off the bat as the Sun Devils hit .091 in game one and Washington hit .093 in the opening stanza.
Arizona State gave the Huskies all they could handle during game one, which featured 11 tie scores and eight lead changes. Washington had early five-point leads at 10-5 and 12-7, before ASU rallied for a five-point lead of their own at 20-15.
Washington then scored six of the next seven points to tie the game at 21-21. The two teams went through six more tie scores, the last at 29-29, before UW came out on top with a 31-29 win after getting the last two points on a Becky Perry kill and an ASU attack error.
"We've done that, at Oregon and against a couple of other teams," McLaughlin said of his team's slow start. ""We've got to get ready to go and start better."
"They've [Arizona State] got some comparable systems to us and they did a good job. They are going to beat some teams."
In game two, UW again had five-point leads at 10-5 and 12-7 before the Sun Devils came back to tie the score at 16-16 and then at 19-19. But Washington scored 11 of the game's final 16 points for the 30-24 win. Arizona State hit just .024 in the game.
Mussie saved her best for last, tallying nine of her 19 kills in the Huskies 30-27 game three win. She put UW up 16-14 on a powerful kill from the middle that brought the Bank of America crowd to its feet.
"I struggled in the beginning to get my rhythm and getting my mechanics down," said Mussie. "They [Arizona State] are big blockers and they played well. Every day it's a struggle for me to work on my mechanics in practice and to stay mechanically sound. It was a good night, but we can improve."
No other Husky reached double-digits in kills on the night, marking the first time in eight games that UW has failed to have at least two players with 10 or more kills.
Jessica Swarbrick finished the night with nine kills and a .538 hitting percentage for UW as she was the only player for either team to hit over .300. Christal Morrison and Becky Perry each added eight kills, and Jenna Hagglund had a match-high 44 assists for the Huskies.
Sarah Reaves led the Sun Devils with 16 kills, while Margie Giordano added 13 kills. Marina Mercer led ASU with 35 assists and Sydney Donahue led all players with 25 digs.
Washington will host Arizona tomorrow night at 7 p.m. in another Pac-10 contest. The Wildcats defeated Washington State, 3-1, tonight and are now 12-5 and 2-3 in the Pac-10.
NOTES: Washington has now won 10 matches in a row over ASU ... UW leads the all-time series 29-18 ... Tamari Miyashiro led the Huskies with 15 digs and Morrison added 12 ... The Huskies had 15 team blocks, compared to just eight for ASU ... Alesha Deesing led UW with eight total blocks ... Reaves hit a team-best .286 for the Sun Devils ... In all, there were 28 ties and 15 lead changes on the night.
