Hosting two undefeated teams over the weekend, ASU volleyball received assurance that the Pac-10 Conference will be ultra-competitive yet again in 2010.
The Sun Devils (5-9, 0-2 Pac-10) suffered two difficult losses at the hands of No. 1 Stanford on Friday and No. 8 California on Sunday.
The season-long battle against inconsistency resurfaced for the Sun Devils this weekend. While ASU came out fighting against the top-ranked Cardinal, they failed to repeat similar success against Cal.
“I’m not sure that we prepared as well as we did the night before,” ASU coach Jason Watson said. “I’m not sure that we were on task long enough. That willingness to prepare, especially in this conference with the level that you have, is what can get you over the hump. It was very disappointing to us that our staff didn’t get us as prepared as we should have been for this match.”
The Sun Devils opened the weekend in a premiere matchup against No. 1 Stanford. After searching for intensity earlier in the season, the Sun Devils brought it to the court against the Cardinal.
“It was so exciting, the fact that they are No. 1 almost helped us,” senior outside hitter Sarah Reaves said. “Like, ‘they’re number one? Who cares, let’s prove them wrong.’ That’s kind of how we went out there. We knew they were ranked number one, but at the same time, we knew we could compete.”
The Cardinal (11-0, 2-0) came to Tempe not having lost a set to ASU in six years.
However, that streak came to a screeching halt on Friday night. Stanford proved why they hold the nation’s top ranking with 25-23 and 27-25 victories to lead 2-0.
Behind an energetic crowd, ASU responded with at 25-23 set win to earn its first set victory over Stanford since 2004.
“It definitely felt good getting the set win,” junior middle blocker Sonja Markanovich said. “We played all together, and we all contributed, having that intensity and just bringing it out and throwing it out on the floor was great.”
Stanford ultimately prevailed in the fourth set to earn the match victory 3-1. Reaves’ 23 kills moved her into fourth place on the ASU all time kills list with 1526.
Sunday afternoon brought the Golden Bears (12-0, 2-0), who also topped UA on Friday.
Cal quickly earned the 3-0 sweep with 25-23, 25-21 and 26-24 set victories. The Sun Devils struggled to gain momentum from the get go.
“We just weren’t confident,” Reaves said. “We weren’t intense; we were just out there to play instead of out there to win.”
With the Pac-10 schedule heating up, Watson hopes his Sun Devils will learn from their struggles this weekend.
“We’ve got to learn to compete over back to back weekends,” Watson said. “This is probably the easiest weekend in that we had a day in between. From here on out, we aren’t going to have that luxury.”
Reach the reporter at gregory.dillard@asu.edu
