The Sun Devils are looking to complete their second straight series sweep of their archrivals tonight in Tucson.
Coming off a 1-1 home stand against the Pac-10's Washington schools, the ASU volleyball team (14-12, 6-7 Pac-10) will take on UA (13-12, 3-10) at the McKale Center with playoff implications on the line.
Each team will need to finish with a record over .500 to have a shot at an at-large bid to the 2007 NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament.
The Wildcats are a long shot to make the playoffs even if they pull off a few upsets to close out their season, and the Sun Devils find themselves in a similar position to where they were last year at this point.
After sweeping last year's season series with UA in the last game of the regular season, the Sun Devils won their fourth of five matches to earn a spot in the 2006 NCAA Tournament.
This season, ASU's schedule doesn't close as kindly, with all four of its final matches against teams ranked in the Top 10 of the CSTV/AVCA Top 25 poll.
"(UA) is almost a must-win match," ASU coach Brad Saindon said. "We would still stay alive, but we would still have work to do."
The Sun Devils follow up tonight's match in Tucson with road matches against No. 5 Stanford and No. 7 California next week before welcoming No. 9 UCLA and No. 6 USC to Wells Fargo Arena the following week.
A repeat of ASU's Oct. 12 three-game sweep of UA (31-29, 30-25 and 30-28) would relieve the pressure the Sun Devils will face in the coming weeks.
ASU freshman outside hitter Sarah Reaves had 20 kills and ASU sophomore setter Marina Mercer gave out 47 assists in the win last month, where the Wildcats committed 19 total errors, eleven on serves.
Like the Sun Devils, UA swept Washington State in three games last week (30-17, 30-23 and 30-15) to end a seven-game losing streak they struggled through after beating the Cougars back in September.
The Wildcats' chances of winning may rest in the hands of their veterans, senior middle blocker Dominique Lamb and junior outside hitter Randy Goodenough, who combined for 27 kills in last month's loss to ASU.
Reach the reporter at: devin.hicks@asu.edu.
