Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
PROVO — If winning is a skill, a BYU women's volleyball team led by two freshmen and two sophomores has yet to fully develop it.
No. 13 Arizona State, on the other hand, has emerged fully formed.
Shania Cromartie poured in 16 kills and 10 digs, and Geli Cyr added 15 kills, 19 digs and two blocks as the Sun Devils improved to 21-2 with a 25-23, 17-25, 23-25, 25-14, 15-7 win over the 20th-ranked Cougars in front of 2,757 fans Halloween night in the Smith Fieldhouse.
Argentina Ung dished out 56 assists, and Mary Shroll had 19 digs for Arizona State, which went to five sets for the first time in 2024.
Claire Little poured in a match-high 20 kills and seven digs for BYU (13-7, 6-4 Big 12), which served just two aces with 13 service errors.
Brielle Kemavor added 10 kills and four blocks, Kjersti Strong supplied 20 kills and seven digs, and Alex Bower dished out 46 assists with 15 digs for the Cougars in their third consecutive loss to the Sun Devils.
"I thought their serving was great, and our passing broke down," BYU head coach Heather Olmstead said. "I thought we still hit good enough to be in the match without great passing. I liked our fight in the third set; we were down big, and came back to give ourselves a chance. That showed a lot of character and just grittiness from our team.
"Then our discipline broke down in multiple areas. We just weren't quite clean enough to keep up with them, and their serving and passing was really good."
LITTLE GOT IT DONE💪
— BYU Women's Volleyball (@BYUwvolleyball) November 1, 2024
📺 https://t.co/ccZz3g8CYdpic.twitter.com/4l9bNDgZJB
After splitting the first two sets, BYU overturned a deficit as high as four points to tie the third set at 19-18 with a 3-1 run, and again at 20-20 on Little's 13th kill of the match.
Kemavor capped a 3-0 run to give the Cougars a 23-21 advantage, and Lulu Uluave's sliding dig set up Kemavor's kill for a match point.
The sophomore middle blocker from Virginia put one away over the middle for the 25-23 win that put the Sun Devils on the brink for the first time since a 3-1 loss to then-No. 18 Baylor on Sept. 27.
"We had nothing to lose, so let's just go for it," said Strong, a graduate transfer from Saint Mary's and the only senior on the team. "We have a lot of really talented girls on our team, and I feel like everyone was focusing on doing their job, moving on if the point doesn't go our way, and we really got in a good rhythm. It was good execution."
ASU jumped out to a 15-10 lead, and the gap only widened as the Sun Devils hit .379 and held BYU to .067 en route to the 25-14 win that set up the decisive fifth set.
Savannah Kjolhede laid down back-to-back kills for a 6-3 lead, and ASU took an 8-4 advantage midway through the final set on an ace by Mary Shroll.
Ung served one of the Sun Devils' eight aces to put the visitors up, 10-5 and Cromartie spearheaded a 4-0 run en route to ASU's 15-8 win in the fifth.
"We're just not executing," Olmstead said of her team's fifth-set struggles. "We've got to be better; who knows what it is, but we've got to execute when it matters."
