A win in Los Angeles against a ranked UCLA team (21-4, 14-3 Pac-12) would’ve meant a lot to Arizona State’s (14-14, 7-10) postseason aspirations. The Sun Devils in stretches played well enough to win Friday. However, the No. 13 Bruins dominated the end of each set onto a 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-19).
In the first set, Arizona State had a leads of 19-14 and 20-16, but UCLA’s 9-2 win really stopped a good train of momentum the Sun Devils had. The attack never got going — .161 team hitting percentage compared to UCLA’s .276 — as Iman Isanovic was the only Sun Devil with more than five kills.