CORVALLIS, Ore. – In a five-set thriller, Oregon State stunned No. 19 Arizona State (20-25, 25-23, 25-18, 13-25, 15-11) on Friday night in front of a raucous Gill Coliseum crowd.
Liz Schuster (26) and Amanda Burns (23) combined for 49 assists to push the Beavers (6-11, 1-6) to the ranked win over the Sun Devils, who had previously dropped just one match.
“Credit to Arizona State for a well-fought match,” said head coach Lindsey Behonick. “They’re a really good team and reason why they’ve been in the top 25 all year. (I’m) just really grateful for the healthy competition. This team … they’ve earned the right to get a win and a win against a top-25 team. We haven’t given up and kept focusing on staying in the moment, controlling what we can control and how we respond when things aren’t going our way. This environment tonight – on homecoming weekend – helped build up to the moment. Congratulations to the team and I’m looking forward to playing Arizona on Sunday.”
Mychael Vernon led the Beavers with 19 kills, while Megan Sheridan (11) and Peyton Suess (10) followed with double-digits themselves. Burns complemented her 23 assists with eight kills and seven digs, while Ryan White’s 20 digs paced OSU. Vernon used 13 digs to complete a double-double on the evening.
With the first set deadlocked at 18 apiece, the visitors took advantage of aces and OSU errors as they used a 7-2 run to apply pressure and end things at 25-20. Vernon tallied five kills to start out her night and Sheridan put up four. Before giving up the lead, Lauren Rumel strung together consecutive aces to highlight a 3-0 run.
The Beavers evened things when they eked an 8-6 run to close out the second with a 25-23 set win. When ASU brought the OSU lead to just one at 24-23, a key kill from Suess secured the frame. Finding themselves down 17-15, the Beavers flipped things with Sun Devil miscues and timely kills to make it a 21-18 advantage.
Putting the Sun Devils on the brink, Oregon State used a 25-18 third set for a 2-1 advantage. Following the frame, White was up to seven digs and Vernon had met the double-digit mark in kills. A 4-0 spurt at 6-6 gave the Beavs the boost needed to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Arizona State would get as close as six but could never close the gap before falling by seven.
Unable to finish off the Sun Devils in four, the Beavers made sure to secure the upset in the winner-take-all fifth. Back-and-forth until it was 10-10, a Vernon kill and consecutive Sun Devil errors gave the Beavs the separation they were looking for. Back-to-back kills from Rumel and Burns secured the upset at 15-11.
Oregon State will close out the weekend with a matchup against Arizona on Sunday, October 15. The nationally televised matchup can be seen on Pac-12 Networks with first set slated for noon.
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