Senior outside hitter Erica Wilson (10) celebrates a point with junior libero Caitlyn Francis (14) after a point in the loss to Colorado on Oct. 12. (Photo by Kyle Newman)After a tough four-game road trip, the ASU volleyball team returns back to Tempe for more conference games over the weekend.
The Sun Devils square off against the Oregon State Beavers and the No. 3 Oregon Ducks in two primetime matchups on Friday and Saturday. It will be the first time the Sun Devils will play a Pac-12 game on a Saturday this season.
It has been a tough life in the Pac-12 so far for ASU, who got off to a 2-1 start to open up the conference schedule. Since then, the Sun Devils have faltered quite a bit.
“We’re focusing on reducing our errors so we can manage that part of the game (better),” freshman outside hitter Whitney Follette said.
They’ve suffered five losses in a row, three of which have come against ranked opponents — No. 2 Stanford, No. 6 UCLA and No. 7 USC. It appeared the streak would come to an end when the Sun Devils took a 2-0 set lead over Colorado last weekend, but then dropped three straight sets to lose a tough game to the Buffaloes.
“We all came together at the end of the Utah game and put everything behind us and just keep looking forward because we still have a chance to go to the NCAA tournament,” sophomore outside hitter Nora Tuioti-Mariner said.
ASU will get its first chance to climb out of the hole when it hosts Oregon State (13-7, 3-5 Pac-12), a team that consistently flirts with the top-25 rankings, on Friday night.
The Beavers have been a big win away from cracking the top 25 all season long. While they sit close to rankings, they’ve yet to be competitive in any of their losses to ranked opponents. In its four conference games against ranked teams this season, Oregon State has yet to win a single set.
The reason for the Beavers’ dismal loses may lie with their weak offense. As a team, OSU ranks last in the conference in hitting percentage (.202), assists (11.24) and kills (12.33). The Beavers though have been solid on defense thanks to junior libero Becky Defoe, who leads the Pac-12 in digs per set (5.54).
Saturday night will be a tougher challenge for the Sun Devils when they host Oregon (16-1, 7-1 Pac-12), whose results differ oppositely from OSU.
In their seven conference wins this year, the Ducks dropped a set just three times, accumulating a set record of 30-3 in those wins. Their lone loss was against No. 2 Stanford, who knocked them off 3-2 on Oct. 5.
As a team, no one is averaging more assists (14.85) and kills (15.78) per set than Oregon, who leads the conference in both categories. Junior setter Lauren Plum has been helping pace the offense with her 12.89 assists per set, good to rank her No.1 in the conference. At the end of those sets is senior outside hitter Alaina Bergsma, whose 4.54 kills per set has her ranked No. 2 in the conference.
“Certainly, at this point, we’re running out of opportunities for signatures wins at home, and both of these matches are crucial for us,” ASU coach Jason Watson said.
Reach the reporter at talopez3@asu.edu
