TEMPE, Ariz. - The sounds of the victory bell sang once again in Desert Financial Arena on Saturday, Sept. 12, as the Arizona State Sun Devils clinched their seventh win of the season.

After clinching their first home win a day over Oregon 3-1, the Sun Devils (7-2) continued their winning ways, beating the San Diego Toreros (3-4) 3-1 on Saturday, continuing a bounce-back stretch after a surprising loss in their first home game hosting UC Davis.

Freshman setter Elle Mottola led the game with 34 assists and was tied for second on the team in digs. 

Mottola believes her large impact and ASU’s successes in Saturday’s game were fueled by the surprise loss to the Aggies.

“Next game mentality,” Mottola said. “We obviously got beat down a little bit and then we came back harder and stronger and proved that we’re not going to let that happen again. We’re going to keep fighting every point and just trust each other throughout the game.”

Up until the 10th point, it looked like the Toreros had the advantage, leading early in the first set.

However, once the Sun Devils took the lead, they never looked back, dominating with 15 kills and limiting the Toreros to a hitting percentage of just .032, winning the set 25-15.

ASU head coach JJ Van Niel intended for the team to be very strong defensively, which translated to the court on Saturday.

“Before the match, I told them our big key was going to be defensively,” Van Niel said. “Let's shut them down and hold them to zero. So we did a great job there, still got some work offensively but, really nice job defensively.”

It looked to be the same story through the second set, as the Sun Devils opened the set with a 4-0 run and kept their lead through the early stages of the set. 

San Diego never went away, though, tying the score at 17 and eventually taking its first lead since the 10th point of the first set, going on to answer back and win the set 25-23. 

Yet after losing a set, Mottola and the Sun Devils looked upbeat and positive coming out of the tunnel after the intermission. 

“Just keeping that energy high is the next point, it's a next point mentality,” Mottola said. “Just keeping the energy because we all trust each other to get any ball over, any ball in, any ball killed.”

Senior opposite hitter Noemie Glover and junior outside hitter Una Vajagić led the way in the third set, as ASU cruised to a 25-11 third set victory, putting up a game-high .351 hitting percentage in the set. 

Glover led the game with 18 kills and a .350 hitting percentage, along with 18.5 points as an individual.

The Sun Devils continued their serving dominance through the fourth and final set, posting a 92% sideout percentage en route to a convincing 25-14 victory, closing out the game three sets to one. 

Van Niel and ASU attributed much of its achievement to the team’s upbeat energy and its “game changers,” notably junior libero Piper Rama.

“We call the people over there our game changers because at any point they'll be called in to do well,” Van Niel said. “So they take a lot of pride in that. I think really Piper started it when she first got here. She's just such a high energy person, but the whole game changer group gets into it and has a good time and makes the games fun and it provides a good spark for our team.”

With their short home stint coming to a close, the Sun Devils open the week beginning a lengthy two-week away trip that will include the start of conference play.

As the team returns back to the road, ASU looks to continue its domination away from home, facing off on Thursday, Sept. 17, against Stanford at 2:30 p.m. MST at the Mott Athletics Center.