Oregon State
Arizona State
Beavers Make it Seven Straight with Pac-12 Opening Win over Arizona State
September 16, 2011 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 16, 2011
Corvallis, Ore. – The Oregon State volleyball team (9-2, 1-0 Pac-12) overcame a 9-4 deficit in the fifth set to extend its winning streak to seven in a five-set (25-19, 21-25, 19-25, 25-16, 16-14) Pac-12 opening win over Arizona State (4-6, 0-1 Pac-12) on Friday evening in legendary Gill Coliseum.
“I think credit goes to Arizona State,” head coach Taras Liskevych said. “They really made us play their game. They did a great job passing, digging and covering. We're fortunate to have really turned it on in the end of that fifth set to get the victory - some great defensive plays and some really unbelievable plays there at the end from 10-10 on. I think it put us in a really good position to pull one out.
I can't say enough about what Megan [McBride] did in that fifth set. I thought Kelsey [Zimmerman] did a great job coming in the fourth set, and we just showed that maybe playing all those five set matches early in the year helped us for this – I'm sure it did.”
Junior Camille Saxton (Balzac, Alberta) killed a team-high 14 balls with senior Dre Shaw (Wailuku-Hawai'i) adding 13. Junior Ashley Eneliko (Seattle, Wash.) contributed nine kills.
Defensively, Eneliko blocked a team-high six balls of the team's 13.0 total blocks. Sophomore Becky Defoe (Bend, Ore.) dug a match-high 16 balls with Shaw digging 15.
Oregon State easily cruised to a set one before Arizona State tied things up and took the slim 2-1 lead out of the break. The Beavers tied the match up again forcing a deciding fifth for the sixth time this season.
The Sun Devils opened the deciding set on a 4-0 run, switching sides with a 8-4 lead. Arizona State built its lead to 9-4 before the Beavers went on a 5-0 run behind a pair of kills by junior Megan McBride (Auburn, Wash.) and a block with junior Martie Massey (Beaverton, Ore.) serving to take the 10-9 lead.
The two teams went back and forth tying the set three more times with the final time coming at 14 all. Then Saxton took over, earning her 14th kill to make it 15-14 before posting the match-winning block against Nora Tuioti-Mariner, hitting opposite.
Arizona State's Ashley Kastl led all hitters with 19 kills, while libero Stephanie Preach adding 15 digs. Tuioti-Mariner and Alexis Pinson both earned 11 blocks each.
The Beavers wrap up play against the Arizona schools, hosting Arizona on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.
Oregon State Notes – Senior Dre Shaw earned her sixth double-double of the season, seventh career, with 13 kills and 15 digs … Oregon State is now 16-36 all-time against Arizona State, snapping a three-match winning streak by the Sun Devils in the series … Oregon State is now on a seven-match winning streak, the longest since 1996 … Oregon State is 4-0 at home this season, 4-2 in five-set matches.
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