ASU sand volleyball kicked off its first home tournament against the Arizona, and it didn't end as the Sun Devils had hoped.
As the Wildcats did during the indoor season, Arizona (11-1) dominated ASU (4-9), defeating them 4-1 Friday night
The evening started out with ASU's No. 2 pair, graduate student Bethany Jorgensen and senior Jordy Checkal, who were defeated in two sets 21-10 and 21-14. With their tough loss tonight, they are 5-8 going into Saturday's games.
The Sun Devils responded to the first loss with an incredible win from freshman Halle Harker and junior Whitney Follette. The No. 4's defeated the Wildcats 21-19 in the first, and ran away with the match with a 21-9 second set win, for their second win in a row. They are now 6-7 and tied for the second best ranking on the team.
That was the last win of the night for ASU.
Next up were juniors Bianca Arellano and Macey Gardner, ASU's No. 1 pair. They put up a strong fight in both sets falling 21-19 and 23-21 as Arizona took the 2-1 lead. Arellano and Gardner still have the best, and only winning, record on team, going into the rest of the weekend 8-5.
Freshman Frances Giedraitis and junior Andi Lowrance lost their eighth game of the season, also falling to the Wildcats in two sets 21-14 and 21-11. The Wildcats took the 3-1 lead with just two players remaining, sophomore Kizzy Willey and freshman Sydney Palmer.
The final pair fell the Arizona in two sets, giving the Wildcats the 4-1 win.
ASU hasn't had a winning season and knew it would be a tough one.
"We really want to learn, and if we go play the best teams in the country, we're going to learn a lot more about what we need to do, especially for next year when it becomes an NCAA Championship sport," head coach Jason Watson said. "Our schedule has been really tough, we've played some really good sand volleyball teams, and that's was the plan coming into it."
The rest of the weekend should be easier for the Sun Devils as they take on New Mexico (10-6), who ASU recently defeated 5-0, and CSU-Bakersfield (9-7), who fell to the Lobos Friday night.
ASU will play New Mexico on Saturday at 12 p.m. and will finish up its last home weekend of the season against CSU-Bakersfield at 5 p.m.
Reach the reporter at kewens@asu.edu or follow @katlynewens on Twitter.
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