After losing to top-10 teams Stanford and California last weekend, the schedule gets even tougher this week for the ASU volleyball team (9-5, 1-2), as it hosts No. 4 USC Friday and No. 3 UCLA Saturday.
The Women of Troy (15-0, 4-0) and the Bruins (17-0, 4-0) both beat defending national champion Washington last weekend, and they sit atop the Pac-10 as the only teams without a conference loss.
"There are two great volleyball teams coming in here," ASU coach Brad Saindon said. "The question is, can we rise up and play well enough to offer some resistance? If we play as well as we're capable of, we can do that."
Saindon said this might be the time his team pulls off an upset.
"It just takes one night when things go right," he said. "I think we're good enough to knock one of these top teams off. We're ready to do that, and maybe it's this weekend."
USC, which won back-to-back national championships in 2002 and 2003, is back into title contention this year after finishing 17-11 and losing in the second round of the NCAA tournament a year ago.
The Women of Troy have lost just nine games total in their 15 matches this season, and beat Washington 3-1 last Friday to keep their record perfect.
USC brings one of the Pac-10's top defenses with it, as the squad currently leads the conference with 3.38 blocks per game.
Senior libero Debora Seilhamer, an All Pac-10 selection last year when she broke the conference's single-season record with 6.82 digs per game, is one of the leaders of USC's defense. Seilhamer is second in the Pac-10 with 335 digs this season, topped only by ASU junior libero Sydney Donahue's 347.
USC also has a potent offense, led by 6-foot-4-inch junior outside hitter Asia Kaczor. Her 241 kills lead the Pac-10, and she also has a .315 hitting percentage and 18 service aces.
"Every one of their players can do good things," Saindon said of USC. "They're just really balanced, and they don't really have any weaknesses."
UCLA, which appears headed for an eighth straight season with 20 or more wins, comes in unbeaten despite playing its first 15 matches away from home. In that stretch, the Bruins swept 12 of their opponents and lost only three total games.
In their home opener last Thursday, the Bruins fell behind 2-0 to Washington but rallied to win the final three games and remain undefeated.
ASU's defense, which leads the Pac-10 with 19.42 digs per game, will get a stern test from a UCLA team that leads the conference with 17.32 kills and 16 assists per game.
Senior middle blocker Nana Meriweather leads the Bruin scoring attack, as she has 220 kills and a Pac-10 best .537 hitting percentage this season. She also leads the conference with 94 blocks, a 1.77 per game average.
Sophomore setter Nellie Spicer, a member of the 2005 All Pac-10 freshman team, has set up much of the Bruin offense with a conference-best 755 assists this season.
"[She] just does magic things," Saindon said of Spicer. "I think part of why their offensive numbers are so good is that their sets are so good. She's just a terrific player, and she's fun to watch."
Reach the reporter at matthew.storey@asu.edu
