Oct. 20, 2000
TEMPE, Ariz. -- In what ended up as a record-breaking night for Arizona State's premier outside hitter Amanda Burbridge, it was only fitting that she was the one who put the exclamation point on a wild 3-2 win over the visiting Washington State Cougars by ending the match in the fifth game with a block.
The 22-20, 13-15, 5-15, 15-8, 15-6 victory capped the first season sweep by ASU over the Cougars since 1994. The win puts the Sun Devils in a tie for fourth place in the conference with a 13-7 overall record, 5-5 in Pac-10 play. WSU fell to 12-7 on the year, 3-7 in conference action.
Burbridge, a senior from Scottsdale, shattered the 18-year-old school record with 39 kills and recorded a career high with 29 digs. The outside hitter hit .313 for the match (39-13-83), breaking the school record for kills in a match set by All-American Lisa Stuck in 1982 vs. Santa Clara. The mark ranks as the fourth most in a match in Pac-10 history, last duplicated by former WSU All-American Sarah Silvernail in 1996. Burbridge now has 1,390 kills in her career, ranking fifth all-time, only two behind fourth place (Valentina Vega).
"The team really played well tonight and was just awesome on defense digging the ball," Burbridge said after the match. "Cheryl (Anglin) set the ball and I was just fortunate enough to be the swinger and record all the kills. It was really a team effort tonight and a win like this really puts us in a good position heading into the second half of our conference schedule."
While Burbridge was putting the ball down a school record amount of times, freshman setter Cheryl Anglin (Queen Creek) was busy shattering her own freshman record for assists. The setter amassed 84 assists, second most in school history, and broke her previous freshman record of 77 set in her first collegiate start vs. Cal Poly on Sept. 1. Anglin now ranks second, fourth (77), ninth (71) and 18th (65) in the record books only 20 matches into her college career. She also added 14 digs and four blocks to the Sun Devils' totals. The 84 assists ties a high in the Pac-10 this year, also recorded by Arizona's Dana Burkholder vs. ASU on Sept. 13.
ASU started off the match on a solid note, winning a wild game one by a score of 22-20. The Sun Devils fended off seven game points by WSU in the opening frame, and battled through five of their own game points to take the early lead. Burbridge and senior Michelle Mortensen (Chandler) each had 10 kills in the longest game for ASU since a game five win at Arizona in 1993 (24-22).
After WSU took games two and three to build a solid 2-1 lead, the Devils came back with a strong game four, hitting .317 and gaining a 15-8 win. In the deciding game five, ASU out-hit WSU .526 to .167.
Not to be overshadowed by Burbridge's record-breaking night was Mortensen's 20-kill, eight-block night, as well as Jami Coughlin's (Glendale) 13-kill, 20-dig match. The Cougars were led by sophomore LaToya Harris who tallied 24 kills. Junior setter Kali Surplus added 68 assists.
The Sun Devils will return to action Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena, hosting the Washington Huskies to a 7 p.m. Pac-10 tilt. ASU handed UW a 3-0 setback earlier in the year, and will be gunning for the school's first season sweep of the Washington school's since 1992. UW enters the match with a 1-9 record in Pac-10 play, tied for last place. WSU (12-7) 20 15 15 8 6 ASU (13-7) 22 13 5 15 15 ASU Statistical Leaders: KILLS: Burbridge (39), Mortensen (20), Coughlin (13) ASSISTS: Anglin (84) TOTAL BLOCKS: Mortensen (8) SERVICE ACES: Hubbard (9) Attendance: 625
--Sun Devil Volleyball--