The ASU women's water polo team has a big weekend of home games ahead of it.
The Sun Devils will take on UC Santa Barbara tonight and then host the ASU Invitational on Saturday and Sunday.
In the first game, the No. 11 Sun Devils (5-9, 2-4 MPSF) will look to beat UC Santa Barbara for the second time this season. The two teams met in the Anteater Invitational on Feb. 25, with the Devils coming away with a 13-11 win in overtime.
"[UCSB is] fast, so it's really [about] taking care of the ball on offense, not giving them anything easy off of the transition and also drives on their offense," coach Todd Clapper said. "If we can do that, I think they'll struggle to score like they did in the first half when we played them in Irvine."
"I think if we keep up the intensity throughout the entire game then we're going to have no problems against them," said junior attacker Kim Buck.
While every game this weekend is important, the game against UCSB is the one the Sun Devils really want to win because it will count in the MPSF standings.
"Ultimately though, the Friday night game is the game of the weekend, and that's the MPSF game," Clapper said. "Winning the rest of them is just gravy."
Following the game with the Gauchos, the Sun Devils will dive into their own tournament for the remainder of the weekend.
The team will kick off the tournament Saturday by facing Redlands at 10:15 a.m., and then UCSB for the second day in a row at 4:15 p.m.
While Redlands is not a Division I team and the Sun Devils are much stronger on paper, the team knows it still has to compete hard in order to win.
"They won't have the depth that we have, but they're talented players, they have a good coach and I just think there's going to be mismatches when we're down on offense that they're going to have to worry about, Clapper said.
"They can play good defense, they can get transition goals, they can create some stuff on offense, so they're a quality opponent."
"They still have strong players on their team, they're still a very solid team, so I think as long as we keep our focus we're going to be great against them," Buck said.
The Sun Devils will also play one or two tournament games on Sunday, with opponents being determined by Saturday's results.
ASU will wrap up the weekend by playing Michigan in an exhibition game at 3 p.m., Sunday.
While winning every game is the ultimate goal, the Sun Devils also want to use the weekend to make any final adjustments to make sure they are on top of their game heading into the final month of the season.
"I think we're going to do really well in the tournament," freshman center Kelly Phelps said. "I think as long as we stay focused and don't let up in key moments, we're going to walk away with wins in all games."
Clapper said his team playing consistent is the key.
"If we can consistently play though four quarters and not have those moments where we rush things, that's going to help us win out this weekend," Clapper said. "And it's going to help us toward the rest of the season. This is really about getting the games, getting experience, getting all the kinks out this weekend to finish out our MPSF season."
Reach the reporter at: gina.mizell@asu.edu.
