For the third time this season, there will be a duel in the desert between ASU and Arizona in Tucson as the Sun Devil sand volleyball team looks to end its second season with a win.
These rivals last met at the Pac-12 Invitational, where the Wildcats edged past the Sun Devils, 3-2, and advanced to the team Invitational finals, where they fell to the undefeated Trojans 5-0.
All season, head coach Jason Watson has talked about the team's disadvantage, with the majority of their players lacking the sand experience that other teams have. Most of the Sun Devil players came from the indoor team and are not as experienced on the sand. He mentioned that his main goal this season was to utilize as much time on the sand as possible by playing experienced teams.
Just looking at the difference between the two games against Arizona this season, it's clear that the tough matches have paid off.
Arizona participated in the ASU Sand Volleyball Challenge on April 10 when it won the tournament and defeated ASU 4-1. Following that weekend, the Sun Devils focused on pairings and preparing for the Pac-12 Invitational, where they would meet the Wildcats again.
This time, ASU had a relatively successful weekend as it beat Cal, upset the No. 3 seed UCLA and advanced to play Arizona.
"I thought we played them (Arizona) tougher than we did at our place not too long ago," Watson said. "I thought we couldn't fault the effort."
Watson said the Sun Devils will continue to improve.
"We're getting so much better at these little details," Watson said. "We are getting so much better at understanding the game and reading the game. Credit to the athletes for that, and obviously our coaching staff is doing an incredible job. I feel good about the progress we are making in this sport."
Compared to last season, the Sun Devils played almost twice the amount of games and teams including TCU, New Mexico and Boise State.
Going into the last game of the season, juniors Bianca Arellano and Macey Gardner have the best record on the team, standing 12-9. Depending on how Wednesday night plays out, graduate student Bethany Jorgensen and senior Jordy Checkal could tie up the best ranking, as they now stand 11-10 at No. 2.
Checkal and Jorgensen had an incredible 3-1 weekend in Santa Monica, only falling to Arizona. Jorgensen cramped up at the beginning of that game, which might have played a large role in the team's 21-14 loss. She is expected to play Wednesday at full strength.
The Sun Devils will finish off their season in Tucson against the Wildcats at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Reach the reporter at kewens@asu.edu or follow @katlynewens on Twitter.
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