Since arriving in Tempe before the 2008 season, ASU coach Jason Watson has led the charge to get the ASU volleyball team back to the NCAA Tournament.
While the Sun Devils (13-18, 7-11 Pac-10) failed to qualify for the postseason for the fourth consecutive year, it was a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows throughout the 2010 campaign.
After a lackluster start to the season during non-conference play, the Sun Devils saw a steady improvement during the rigorous Pac-10 schedule en route to seven conference wins, four more than the previous season.
Despite no postseason, Watson believes his team is headed in the right direction to get to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006.
“We are four wins better in the Pac-10 than we were a year ago,” Watson said. “We were successful. We beat three top-10 teams. If we had been above .500 we would have made a very powerful case for inclusion in the tournament. I feel that everything we had in our control put us in great shape to get on the road to be an NCAA tournament team.”
The Sun Devils kicked off 2010 with a challenging non-conference schedule including matchups against No. 13 Dayton, No. 23 Michigan, and NCAA Tournament teams Utah State and High Point.
ASU was forced to compete in that demanding schedule with injuries to key players, such as junior outside hitter Sofie Schlagintweit, senior libero Sarah Johnson, junior setter Cat Highmark, and sophomore outside hitter Ashley Kastl.
The Sun Devils’ postseason chances were derailed by a less than stellar 5-7 finish in non-conference action.
“We had a lot of close games, or games that we could’ve won but we didn’t,” freshman outside hitter Danica Mendivil said. “It’s unfortunate that it happened that way, but I think it was good though because it made us work hard during season and we had a lot more wins that we normally do during season.”
In 2010, the Pac-10 conference proved to be one of the elite volleyball conferences in the nation once again with six teams ranked in the AVCA top 25 poll.
Following four difficult losses to open Pac-10 play, ASU strung together a four-match winning streak that included upset victories over Southern California and UCLA for the first time since 1995.
“We’re incrementally better than we were even in August,” Watson said. “I think if you beat one of those teams, [you can say] ‘yeah okay, they had a bad night and you had a good night and that can be an outlier.’
“Last year we were able to beat UCLA at home, and not capitalize on that, and end with three conference wins. This year, we did do it against UCLA, we did do it against [USC], and then later in the year we went on the road and did it against Cal. Those are benchmark events for us.”
The Sun Devils would play the upset role one more time in 2010 against then No. 2 California in Berkeley, Calif. It was ASU’s first win over the Golden Bears since 2002.
ASU also swept the season series against Oregon State and Washington State by handing them losses in each of the two matches.
“It was playing with confidence, knowing that we could do it and having faith in ourselves and each other,” junior middle blocker Sonja Markanovich said. “We all worked really hard this season, and every game we just left it out on the floor.”
With positive momentum heading into the offseason, the Sun Devils believe the best is yet to come for a program loaded with young talent.
“We did a lot of good things this year, and it’s just giving people a taste of what’s to come,” Mendivil said. “It’s only going to get better as the years go on. The girls that are still going to be at ASU are going to help us and as the years go on we’re going to get even better and people will really understand what ASU volleyball is all about.”
Reach the reporter at gregory.dillard@asu.edu
