It’s sink or swim time for the ASU water polo team.

As the No. 8 Sun Devils head into the final stretch of their turbulent season, coach Todd Clapper said they can’t be counted out just yet.

“We’re on the bubble,” Clapper said. “We’re going to have to win out [to get to the postseason]. We can only control what we do, and I think we’re well prepared to finish strong.”

The Sun Devils will be hosting the ASU Invitational this weekend at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center, where they will play conference rival San Jose State in the first game of the tournament on Saturday morning.

The Sun Devils played SJSU earlier this season at the Stanford
Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., and lost 11-6, a score Clapper said was not representative of the way the team played.

“I think we’re playing better water polo; we‘re better prepared,” he said. “When we played them before, it was after we played three pretty intense games, and the score is not indicative of the way we played.”

Two of the three intense games Clapper mentioned were against No. 1 Stanford when the Sun Devils suffered a heartbreaking 15-14 loss, and against No. 2 USC, when they were trounced 19-9.

Even after a full week off since its last action, Clapper said the team didn’t rest for a minute.

“We’re a little banged up,” Clapper said. “Nothing that’s keeping anybody from playing or anything, but we trained pretty hard Monday and Tuesday; they’re still feeling it today.”

Clapper said the team had a more relaxed practice on Thursday and added that Friday would be as well. He expects the team to be at full strength by Saturday morning.

The Sun Devils will also take on No. 20 Santa Clara, Cal Lutheran and UC Irvine during the invitational.

Reach the reporter at jaking5@asu.edu.