In a pair of four-set thrillers over the weekend, the ASU volleyball team shocked the Pac-10 Conference and the collegiate volleyball world with not one, but two upset victories against top 10 opponents.
The Sun Devils (8-11, 3-4 Pac-10) stunned No. 5 Southern California and No. 10 UCLA to sweep the pair of California teams in the same weekend, something ASU hadn’t accomplished in 15 years.
ASU handed the Trojans (15-3, 4-3) a 3-1 loss on Friday night, winning sets by scores of 29-27, 25-23 and 25-23 and only dropping the third set 14-25. The stellar play continued Saturday with the Sun Devils defeating the Bruins (13-5, 3-4) 28-26, 25-19 and 25-20 in sets for the 3-1 triumph.
The Sun Devils tapped into their unlimited potential, the potential that ASU coach Jason Watson always knew was there.
“When we started out this season, we felt we had some pieces to the puzzle in place,” Watson said. “Those pieces disappeared with some injuries and some things, and it hampered our progress.
“We always felt that we had the potential, but until you get into the grind of the Pac-10 it’s hard to realize and tell your kids we have this ability.”
With three conference wins, the Sun Devils have already matched their total Pac-10 wins from 2009.
The pair of upset victories reinforces ASU’s belief that it can make some noise in the conference.
“We are letting people that don’t believe in us take a second look and [think] ‘actually this team can compete in this conference,’” junior middle blocker Sonja Markanovich said. “It brought up our confidence. It brought up the confidence of the people looking at our program.”
It had been 28 matches and 15 years since the Sun Devils defeated USC. The streak, the struggles and the winless matches came to an abrupt end Friday night at Wells Fargo Arena.
The Sun Devils needed 29 points to claim the opening set victory, and ASU prevailed again in the second set to hold a 2-0 lead at the break.
The Trojans responded with a 25-14 set three win, but ASU slammed the door on a potential USC comeback with a 25-23 fourth set victory.
“We’re a team that pushes back,” freshman libero Jenny Teslevich said. “We knew that this was our game. They took that third game from us, and we weren’t going to let it happen again.”
Blocking proved to be crucial throughout the match as the Sun Devils outblocked USC 15.5 to 3.
Senior outside hitter Sarah Reaves took control with 17 kills, and a strong supporting cast supplemented Reaves’ effort.
Sophomore middle blocker Erica Wilson smashed 11 kills, and freshman outside hitter Danica Mendivil notched 10 kills of her own.
Following a historic upset to open the weekend, ASU faced another significant challenge against UCLA.
Similar to Friday night, the Sun Devils jumped out to an impressive 2-0 lead behind 28-26 and 25-19 set wins. At 24-19 in the second set, sophomore outside hitter Malia Marquardt’s block sent the crowd into an uproar with the set win.
The Bruins were down, but they were not out. UCLA took advantage of ASU’s nine unforced errors to hand ASU a 24-26 third set loss.
In a fourth set that saw seven tie scores, the Sun Devils regrouped to earn the 25-20 set win and 3-1 match victory.
“UCLA is this unforgiving team,” Watson said. “They are going to make you pay. They are going to grind at you. They pushed, we pushed, and we were able to get some separation late in game four and in game two.”
The two conference victories may have resurrected any hopes of qualifying for the NCAA tournament.
“Clearly, our backs are against the wall,” Watson said. “It’s going to be tough, but with every win we get closer to that magic number. It means we’re going to have to do some work on the road.
“We’ll look back at the opportunity to get Stanford and we’ll look back at some of those opportunities with a little regret perhaps.”
Reach the reporter at gregory.dillard@asu.edu
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