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)Despite being .500 two weeks into Pac-12 play, No. 18 ASU volleyball coach Jason Watson said he is happy with his team’s performance thus far.
“When you go in this conference, especially in volleyball, when you get a split, you feel pretty good about it,” he said. “I feel like our team is progressing, and we’re getting better, and I like where we’re at.”
The team realizes that the Pac-12 is a tough conference, sophomore outside hitter Kizzy Willey said.
“The Pac-12’s a blood bath,” she said.
In a conference this tough, records and rankings don’t tell the entire story of each school’s success.
“You look at records in this conference and you can make some determinations and I think you’re silly if you do that,” Watson said. “Cal is good. … They’re going to pose some problems to us with the offense they run.”
The Sun Devils play unranked Cal on Friday. The Bears run an offense devoted toward two quicks, Watson said. Cal relies on middle blockers to call for sets and as a result, two of their five leading killers are middles.
“That isn’t something that we’ve seen,” Watson said.
Cal is also more physical than ASU. Watson said that to get past this, the Sun Devils have to return serves well, pay attention to side outs and keep track of the opposing hitters.
ASU has faced good teams with great aspects. Cal is physical and has a strong attack. Utah has the best blocking in the Pac-12, junior outside hitter Macey Gardner said. Colorado State’s defense is uncanny.
Both Cal and Utah are unranked. ASU lost to Utah already. Rankings and records don’t matter in the Pac-12.
Except when they do.
ASU will take on No. 1 Stanford (14-0) at home on Sunday morning.
Gardner has played them three times at ASU. In 2012, ASU lost 3-1 twice. Last year, Stanford shut out the Sun Devils in a 3-0 contest.
“They have some great athletes,” Gardner said. "They’ve got a great system that’s obviously working for them.”
ASU has to play a clean game to defeat the best in the nation.
“The biggest challenge that you have to overcome when you’re playing a team like Stanford is they’re not going to give you points,” Watson said. “They’re going to force you to have to play the game really well for long periods of time.”
Earlier in the season, ASU struggled when forced to extend rallies. Watson said that having a week at home to prepare will help with their stamina. They’ve had to travel over the last two, which takes away some practice time.
He said he hopes to force his players to concentrate harder and play longer in practice, but said he realizes the effects of fatigue and needs to balance tough practice with lower-energy time.
“Can we maintain some intensity for long periods of time? We’ll find out on Friday if we’ve made some progress,” Watson said, referring to the Cal match.
They’ll also find out if their defense has taken another step forward. Willey has had many opportunities to dig hits over the last few weeks with opponent’s hitting tendencies going to the left side of the court, and she’s becoming a more consistent defender with fewer balls deflected off her wrists.
“Every single day in routines, we do defensive identity things, like we do sprawls and overhead digs,” Willey said. “(Watson) wants (back left) to dig a lot more balls, because that is a major tendency for a lot of teams, to be hitting left backs.”
Defense will be important against a team as physical as Cal, and limiting defensive errors against a dominant Stanford school will help immensely as ASU tries to break their streak of one-win, one-loss weeks.
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Logan_Newsman
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