Arizona State recently ended its undefeated streak at 14 games, losing its first game of the season 3-0 against No. 3 Stanford. Bouncing back with a 3-2 win against the University of California, Berkeley, the Sun Devils hope to kickstart another winning streak. But with both the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles up next, it's gonna be a challenging weekend for ASU.
The Sun Devil's first loss against Stanford was a big learning curve for the Sun Devils. Understanding Stanford is a physical team and one of the league's tougher opponents, ASU struggled to play at the same level as the Cardinals.
“They served very tough and it’s always hard to play against that,” ASU volleyball coach JJ Van Niel said. “They were playing all over the court and were solid the whole game. We just haven’t been pushed a ton this season and played uncharacteristically to our skills.”
Learning from this defeat, senior middle blocker Claire Jeter and the rest of her teammates left with their heads held high.
“We have a great record right now,” Jeter said. “Stanford showed a lot of our weaknesses and we will work on those. This loss won’t affect our want to continue the strong season we’ve been building.”
They did exactly that when they left Berkeley with their 15th win and a better attitude.
Nevertheless, Van Niel still felt they could've played better after losing the first match and messing up defensively by the net. But with a quick refresh after the first couple of sets, the Sun Devils managed to get back on track.
“I was proud of them for responding the way they did by coming together and being relentless in the final set,” Van Niel said. “Making a good effort in team adjustments such as serving and passing and just scoring one point at a time is all you can control.”
With Stanford and Cal behind them, ASU won't catch a break with USC and UCLA in its near future.
On Friday, USC is coming to Tempe with goals to expand a nine-game winning streak. With experience coaching the Trojans, Van Niel knows what to expect and how to prepare for a team with that much firepower.
“There are things you can do that are strategic, but that’s how you prepare for any match,” Van Niel said. “For us, the focus this week is making sure our own game is working right and is consistent. Putting pressure on the other team has been our strong point so we want to continue that moving forward.”
Making sure they keep up with their top serving and passing skills when facing both teams, they plan to go in with more confidence and not let it fall as the game goes on. The Sun Devils' focus continues to be on improving performance.
“We started off the season very steady in the beginning and now it's been bumpy,” junior outside hitter Geli Cyr said. “We need to maintain our steadiness. If we work as a team, we will beat good teams.”
Even with all the success the Sun Devils have had this season leading up to this point, they strive to stay humble and hungry so they don’t fall further down the ladder.
“These might be two unranked teams but I don’t look at it that way as if they’re easy to play,” Van Niel said. “These teams are strong and we’re gonna approach them as if they were ranked.”
Something that carries much weight on the backs of the Sun Devils is the newfound attention all this success has brought. Being ranked 23rd in the nation, ASU feels pressure to prove itself as a real competitor.
“We’ve worked so hard to get to where we are now,” Jeter said. “We’re not going to slow down to prove people’s doubts about us now that we’ve shown ourselves as underdogs to watch out for.”
Van Niel cares more about how the season ends in Pac-12 play than how the season started, despite making an early statement with one loss through 16 games. Van Niel said he will only feel true success once they can prove themselves against tougher opponents.
“It’s a different mentality being ranked,” Cyr said. “No one expected us to be as good as we are now. We have to show to those who question us that we deserve to be where we are, and we will continue to demonstrate that.”
Edited by Alfred Smith III, Sadie Buggle and Angelina Steel.
Reach the reporter at linunez@asu.edu and follow @laurentahuka on X.
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