FRIDAY’S GAME
No. 2 UCLA at Sun Devils
When: 7:00 p.m.
Where: Wells Fargo Arena
Bruins update: The only two teams that have prevailed against the Bruins so far are No. 3 Washington and No. 20 Pepperdine. The key to UCLA avoiding a second consecutive upset against ASU is keeping the game at a quick tempo.
Every week is a new challenge.
In the past three weeks the ASU (4-11) women’s volleyball team has played four ranked opponents. Nothing changes this weekend when No. 2 UCLA (13-2) and No. 5 USC (11-3) come to Tempe.
The Sun Devils have gone winless in the Pac-12 so far. Last weekend, coach Jason Watson decided to switch up the lineup and he said it worked well for them against Cal.
“We’re looking to go with the same kind of lineup and see what we get this weekend,” Watson said. “We want them to play well again.”
Friday night the Sun Devils host the UCLA Bruins.
UCLA comes in as the second-best team in the country. They have only lost two games this season, to No. 3 Washington and No. 20 Pepperdine.
The Sun Devils set their sights on defending UCLA’s strong outside hitters. Six-foot-three junior outside hitter Rachael Kidder leads the Bruins offensively. Kidder made the Pac-12 Honorable Mention team last year and leads the Bruins in kills with 214 this year.
ASU senior outside hitter Malia Bachynski said she was looking to step up defensively against the southern California teams.
“I’m hoping to help out on blocking their left side, they have a lot of strong hitters out there,” Bachynski said. “So key in on them would definitely help us out a lot.”
Watson said that UCLA has a fast-paced offensive that returns the attack quickly. The Sun Devils have seen many opponents with the same strategy.
But USC offers a different challenge for the Sun Devils. Watson said that the Trojans have a slower style on offense. They like to take their time to create a high set for the attack.
“(Against USC) you’ve got to be disciplined,” Watson said. “Because their offense is a little bit slower, we’ve got to be patient, we can’t get there and be on the way down.”
ASU is also looking to score against the Trojans’ tough defense. USC relies on senior middle blocker Lauren Williams to protect the net. She has 35 total blocks on the year.
ASU junior outside hitter Sarah Clause said she would work to score against their opponents’ strong defenses this weekend.
“I’m hoping to bring on the outside a lot of high swinging because of their big blockers,” Clause said. “To be able to bring that would be awesome.”
Last year the Sun Devils upset both UCLA and USC at home. Watson said the reason that they won was because they played consistent volleyball the whole game.
“One of the things that we did effectively last year was we kept creating, we didn’t make errors and we made the game go very long,” Watson said. “We were able to create some stuff late and that’s the challenge, you’ve got to be able to stay with them and force the game to be long.”
In honor of breast cancer awareness month, the Sun Devils are having a pink-out game on Saturday versus USC, and representatives from the Susan G. Komen Foundation will be at the arena.
Reach the reporter at ehubbard@asu.edu
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