On Monday afternoon the entire ASU women’s soccer team was crowded around the TV in coach Kevin Boyd’s living room, waiting to see if the team made the tournament. Each couch supported six or seven people, with everyone waiting for 2:30 p.m., when the 2010 NCAA tournament bracket would be announced.

On Sunday, Boyd said it would be a shock if they didn’t make it, and at first everyone appeared pretty relaxed. But as the start of the selection show drew near, the talking and laughing slowly began fade.

When the show finally started, there was silence. The Sun Devils weren’t on the first three pages of the bracket, and while a few words were said about matchups, the only real noise was a collective groan when ESPN analyst Julie Foudy appeared on-screen to break down Stanford’s matchup.

But the fourth page was the charm, and the words “Arizona State” appearing on screen resulted in an outbursts of cheering and hugging. The announcer mentioned that ASU was making their second appearance in a row, which led to more cheers, and everyone in the room looked both relieved and excited.

All the seniors were congratulated, and talk immediately began about the matchup with UC Irvine. After the rest of the field was revealed, Boyd stood and told the team how proud he was of them making it this far.

Just got to the Coliseum and learned that ASU senior punter Trevor Hankins has been suspended for the game due to a violation of team rules.

Coach Dennis Erickson made the call to leave Hankins in Tempe, but no details were provided about the violation. Because of Hankins’ absence, senior kicker Thomas Weber will punt tonight and sophomore backup QB Brock Osweiler will hold.

Weber has punted before, during has freshman and sophomore seasons, and has 106 career punts with an average of 40.5 yards per boot. He’s struggled this season, going 10-of-16 on field goals.

It will be interesting to see how Weber fares considering he hasn’t punted at all this season or last. Earlier this season, Hankins spoke to State Press reporter Andrew Gruman about Weber’s punting abilities:

“He likes it,” Hankins said of Weber and punting.  “He doesn’t want to punt, he tells me, but sometimes he doesn’t kick for a few weeks and he comes in and punts a 65-yarder to try and make me look bad.  It is a little heart crushing.  I’m glad he’s doing well and if he has to step in and do the job because I’m not doing my job, then so be it.”

ASU’s showdown with USC in Los Angeles on Saturday may be the marquee matchup of the weekend, but Friday brought plenty of important contests in Tempe.

Having not a won a game in two weekends and looking to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament, the ASU women’s soccer team came out firing against USC on Friday night. With goals from seniors Karin Volpe and Alexandra Elston and freshman Josie Graybeal, the Sun Devils posted a 3-0 win.

With the win, the team may have punched their ticket to the postseason.

Volleyball

The ASU women’s volleyball team had a big night of its own, sweeping Oregon State 3-0 to earn a season sweep and improve to 11-13 overall and 5-6 in the Pac-10.

As sports editor of The State Press, I am proud to announce the return of our sports blog Runnin’ with the Devils. The blog has been used in previous years, but we decided it was time to make the blog a permanent fixture in our growing coverage of ASU athletics.

The revival of this blog will offer our readers complementary coverage that is more personal and candid. The quality of our daily newspaper will remain the same, and the blog posts will always meet the standards our readers have come to expect from State Press sports.

Giving the sports staff the opportunity to provide more coverage of their respective beats won’t serve as a means of over-saturating The State Press with coverage of each team, but will merely give them an outlet to share some of the storylines, observations and tidbits that can’t fit into the print edition.

This sports department is fiercely committed to providing the best possible coverage of all of ASU’s Division I sports. Bringing back Runnin’ with the Devils further serves that goal.

Follow along this weekend as the State Press football reporters and I travel to Los Angeles for ASU’s game against Southern California. We’ll provide ongoing coverage throughout the weekend to complement our standard game coverage, which includes our gameday live blog, live tweeting and full recaps for both teams.