After a good college career, some ASU volleyball players are preparing to wrap up their final season for the Sun Devils.
“‘Our final first home games,’ that’s what we keep saying as (seniors),” senior setter Bianca Arellano said with sounds of bittersweetness sprinkled in her voice.
Arellano is part of an important senior class of the No. 10 ASU women's volleyball team. Outside hitter Macey Gardner and middle blockers Whitney Follette and Mercedes Binns have led the team to three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, the latter two including Arellano and middle blocker Andi Lowrance.
“We’re ready to play in our own gym, have our own support system and I think we’re stoked,” Arellano said.
The Tuesday night game comes against NAU.
Head coach Jason Watson said there’s some semblance of a rivalry between the two schools.
“There will be some emotion in play for sure,” Watson said. “Most of these kids that are local know each other and have played against each other for years.”
Five of the players come from Arizona. Senior middle blocker Payton Bock played club volleyball with Arellano during high school.
Arellano said Bock blocks well and slides on offense.
“She likes a little bit higher sets, a little bit slower,” Arellano said.
Bock led NAU last season with 125 total blocks. She also had 168 kills, one of five players to eclipse the triple-digit mark.
NAU’s leading killer graduated last season, but senior outside hitter Janae Vander Ploeg remains on the team. She had 324 kills in 2014.
Additionally, junior outside hitter Lauren Jacobsen has improved.
“They have two outside hitters that are really successful, hitting for really high efficiencies,” Watson said.
He said that junior setter Jensen Barton helped. Watson said she passes quickly to the outside of the court. This spreads the floor and doesn’t give defenses enough time to adjust.
Watson said ASU has to counter Barton by serving well and maintaining a strong block.
This will be ASU’s fifth game in four days. Watson expressed that it would be difficult for his team. Follette said that the coaches do a good job of keeping stamina up.
“It’s more mental than anything,” she said. “Our coaches are really good at recognizing when we need rest.”
She’ll be one of the players taking the brunt of the load against Bock. Follette and Binns have been hitting extremely accurate in the season. Follette hits .442 and Binns currently leads the Pac-12 with a .569 hitting percentage.
After not practicing on Sunday, the two only have one day to find Bock’s weaknesses and scout her strengths. Watson said practice was going to be light on Monday, with lots of film and not very much activity.
They’ll have more practice opportunities going into the following game. After starting the season with two games in three days and then a five-day stretch with four games, ASU has five days off before the match following NAU.
ASU will play Gonzaga on Sunday afternoon. The Sun Devils haven’t begun preparing for the Bulldogs, but Watson said they’ll take advantage of the period of rest.
The main concern ASU has will likely be protecting their side from Savannah Blinn. Last season, she accumulated 566 kills, eleventh-best in the NCAA.
Gardner had 594, seventh-best.
Watson coached Team USA in China over the summer, and Blinn was on the team.
“She’s a 6’4" outside hitter than can hit it really hard, hit it really high and it’s pretty impressive when she gets on it."
Related Links:
ASU women's volleyball sweeps Western Michigan, Northern Colorado behind accurate hitting
'The Macey Show' to receive less air time in final season with ASU volleyball
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow @Logan_Newsman on Twitter.
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