ASU head coach Jason Watson talks to his team during a time-out in an exhibition match against Mount Royal University, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014, at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. The Sun Devils would go on to win the exhibition, 3-0. (Photo by Ben Moffat)The Pac-12 schedule isn’t getting any easier, as No. 18 ASU volleyball travels to Oregon to play the No. 11 Ducks and Oregon State.
The Sun Devils (14-6, 4-4 Pac-12) pay a visit to Eugene, Oregon Friday. ASU coach Jason Watson said that the Ducks (15-3, 5-3 Pac-12) play an extremely fast-paced offense.
“They’re going to set the ball incredibly fast to their outside hitters and so that creates a defensive challenge for teams,” he said.
Oregon's outside hitters have managed to rack up an impressive number of kills. Junior Martenne Bettendorf ranks tenth in the conference with 235, and senior Liz Brenner is just behind with 221.
“Brenner’s one of the marque players in this conference, she’s remarkably good at what she does,” Watson said.
Like Washington, Oregon uses a two-setter approach to offense. This gave ASU trouble last week, but a few of the players also attributed it to the Washington depth. Oregon isn’t as deep, so ASU can focus more on the two strong outside hitters.
Watson said one way to beat this speed was to serve well and not let them get good attacks going. That could prove a problem for ASU, who has struggled with serving consistency. Additionally, Watson said the Oregon libero, sophomore Amanda Benson, is a great player.
Benson played with junior outside hitter Macey Gardner and junior setter Bianca Arellano before college. Arellano said she enjoys watching film that “Benny” is in and seeing her play such a large part on Oregon’s defense.
“She reads really well on defense so we’re just going to have to keep it away from her on serve receive,” Arellano said.
Junior setter Bianca Arellano celebrates a point in the third set during the match vs Washington State on Sunday, Oct. 19th, 2014, at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. The Sun Devils would rally from two sets down to beat the Cougars 3-2. (Photo by Daniel Kwon)On Saturday night, ASU will play against Oregon State. Last year, the team had a 9-22 record, but Watson thinks that was just a result of the tough conference they play in. OSU went 9-2 before conference play; it didn’t win a single game against Pac-12 teams.
This year, they’re 3-5 in conference play and have a 13-6 overall record. Watson said a part of this was due to freshman outside hitter Mary-Kate Marshall, who has 269 kills and a Freshman of the Year candidate in Watson's opinion.
“Everybody looks at their record and discredits them, but I thought they were really good last year, and I think she’s a missing piece of the puzzle,” he said. “They were great defensively last year, and now they’ve got somebody that can go score some points.”
A point of emphasis for ASU will be consistency on the right side. Sophomore outside hitter BreElle Bailey’s struggles continued over last week, and she was benched in the second set against WSU.
Bailey said there have been some setter-hitter connection issues and her confidence loss has affected her play. She said regaining confidence will be a key part in getting back to the form she played at at the beginning of the season.
Freshman setter Madison McDaniel filled for Bailey and was effective on defense. On Tuesday, Watson said he expects her to keep playing, but hadn’t been able to make a strong decision.
McDaniel has sat on the bench the majority of the season but showed she was ready when called upon.
“I just expect to do whatever the coaches really need me to do,” she said. “If they need me to take a spot, then I’m totally obviously willing to do that, but at this point, I’m just kind of doing what they need, helping the team the best I can.”
Reach the reporter at Logan.newman@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Logan_Newsman
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
