The Oregon schools are in the rearview mirror, but this weekend won’t be any easier.
The ASU volleyball team (4-7) hosts their first conference opponents at home this weekend. The Sun Devils compete against the Washington State Cougars (8-4) and the No. 4 Washington Huskies (9-1).
The Sun Devils enter the home stretch on a four-game losing streak, but are looking for things to turn around in friendly territory. ASU coach Jason Watson is ready to play in front of a home crowd again.
“We like playing here, we think it’s a nice advantage,” Watson said. “We’ve had some success here, last year especially, and we are looking to replicate that this year.”
ASU takes on WSU Friday night. The Cougars had a successful non-conference season, winning eight out of 10 games.
Like ASU, the Cougars had a rough start to conference play. They were swept by both USC and UCLA at home last weekend. Both teams are going to use this weekend to try and turn their Pac-12 season around.
WSU is led offensively by senior outside hitter Meagan Ganzer. Ganzer leads the team in kills with 226. Watson said that his team is preparing to defend against her.
“Washington State has a really nice outside hitter, Ganzer,” Watson said. “So we’ve got to follow her and find her.
Sophomore middle hitter Marcelina Glab will be above the net defending against ASU’s attack. She leads the Cougars with 40 blocks.
On Sunday the Sun Devils will face off against their first top-5 opponent of the season in Washington.
The Huskies were perfect in non-conference play.
Last weekend was an interesting paradox for the Huskies. They defeated 7th-ranked UCLA, but were then upset by unranked USC.
UW is looking to add more to the win column in Tempe.
Freshman outside hitter Krista Vansant ranks highest among the Huskies in points and kills. She is usually set up by senior setter Evan Sanders who has 289 assists this year.
Watson said that UW will be a different challenge than WSU. The Cougars funnel most of their offense through Ganzer.
Last weekend the Sun Devils suffered some heartbreaking losses to Oregon State and Oregon. Both games were very close and the OSU match came down to the final two points.
Even though they lost, freshman outside hitter Nora Tuioti-Mariner said that the close games against ranked opponents boost the team’s confidence.
“They were a ranked team and we almost beat them,” Tuioti-Mariner said. “It tells us that any team is beatable. We can be that underdog and go out and kill some big dogs.”
The team’s goal is always to win every game they play, but in this instance the players and coaches want to see the team play consistently well for both matches the entire time.
Junior middle blocker Erica Wilson said the team needs to work on stepping up and transferring what they work on in practice to the games.
“(There are) little details that we can nail every day in practice,” Wilson said. “But sometimes in games we shut down, we can’t do that.”
Reach the reporter at ehubbard@asu.edu
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