TEMPE, Ariz. – Battling back from a two-set deficit, the Oregon State volleyball team valiantly fell in four to 18th-ranked Arizona State (28-30, 13-25, 25-21, 23-25) on Sunday afternoon to close the season’s road slate.
Finishing just two assists shy of matching her career high, Amanda Burns helped lead the Beavers (11-17, 6-12 Pac-12) in offense with 35 assists while three – Megan Sheridan, Peyton Suess and Mychael Vernon – all tallied at least 10 kills. Elizabeth Schuster followed Burns’ assists with 14 while Lauren Rumel had a pair to go along with seven kills. Ryan White paced the defense with 16 digs but also helped on the offensive effort with six assists.
Sheridan had 18 kills – a season-high – and put up a team-best 18.5 points while Vernon used a dozen digs to complement her 14 kills for her team-leading 12th double-double of 2023.
Erasing a deficit as big as 5-2 in the opening set, the Beavers battled numerous times from 22-22 all of the way to 28-28 before the hosts used a Claire Jeter kill and finished it by taking advantage of a bad set by Burns for the close 30-28 set win. Suess and Vernon started their days with five kills apiece while Burns quickly hit the double-digit assist mark with 10 in the opener. The defensive effort was large as eight – White, Vernon, Schuster, Suess, Sheridan, Rumel, Keira Herron and Iris Coba – all recorded a dig.
The Sun Devils took control early – with a 7-1 run to start – in the second to put the Beavs on the brink of a sweep in the second. Oregon State’s offense was held to just a .167 clip and committed five errors while ASU hit at .500 and had just a pair of miscues.
26 digs – led by Vernon’s nine and White’s seven – in the third helped Oregon State stave off a sweep and forced a fourth set with a 25-23 score. Taking the set’s first four points, the Beavers held a wire-to-wire lead and also held the Sun Devils to a .277 hitting percentage. Sheridan registered a set-best six kills to keep the Arizona State threats at bay when they closed in at 23-21 late in the frame.
Eager to push the match to a decisive fifth set and even pull off a reverse-sweep, the Beavers fell short by a 25-23 line in the fourth. Having fought back from a three-point hole, OSU turned it to an 11-all set in which neither side saw separation again until Arizona State clinched the set – and match point. Sheridan closed her day with five kills in the final set while Schuster and White each added three digs to their lines while Burns dished out seven more assists.
Oregon State will close out the 2023 schedule this week with a pair of afternoon clashes. On Wednesday, the Beavers will welcome UCLA to Gill Coliseum for a 1 p.m. match that can be seen on the OSU Live Stream.
OUR MISSIONOregon State Athletics strives to Build Excellent Authentic Visionary Student-Athletes (Go BEAVS)
