ASU water polo hasn't slowed down since the once-dormant program found its pulse.
This season, the Sun Devils boast a 16-4 record and are 8-1 at both home and neutral sites following the Barbara Kalbus Invitational last weekend. They're also ranked 11th in the nation at the moment after dropping one spot since returning from the tournament in Irvine, California.
A 19-8 loss to No. 8 Long Beach didn't kick off the invitational the way that ASU had hoped. The team was able to regroup quickly and cap off the weekend with three straight wins against Biola University, No. 17 Indiana and No. 14 Loyola Marymount.
A common theme for ASU under third-year head coach Petra Pardi has been finding success through adversity, and there's no better way to describe the program's last few games.
Indiana and LMU weren't ready to let ASU leave California peacefully, as both teams forced the Sun Devils into overtime. Freshman attacker Itziar Almeda, who won gold for Spain in the World Aquatic Women's U18 World Championships last fall, helped ASU quickly put both opponents to bed with her overtime goals.
Another common theme for the Sun Devils is one almost every team struggles with: getting boxed out by top-ranked opponents.
ASU's other three losses this season came against No. 3 UCLA, No. 5 Hawaii and in overtime against No. 14 UC San Diego. Still, the squad continues to exceed expectations, especially with so many young players.
The Sun Devils welcomed 11 new faces to the roster this season, 10 of whom are freshmen who've made a noticeable impact. Despite a complete change up from last year's successful roster, the group picked up right where they left off and Pardi believes fresh talent has been a major factor.
"I think that a lot of our success this season has been the depth of our roster; we are very evenly matched, especially on the perimeter," Pardi said. "I like that the 10 freshmen are really finding a good groove and they are stepping up a lot."
Its not common for new additions to mesh with their team right away, but sophomore attacker Alison Kokorowski remembered what it felt like to be in that same position. She believes it was up to the returners to prepare the team for the road ahead.
"It's really important that these newcomers feel like they're coming into something that's already established," Kokorowski said. "Our team values are the same as they were; things like that are what keep everyone on the same page."
That mentality seems to have worked for the Sun Devils, especially for the rookies who hit the ground running and haven't looked back. Freshmen alone have accounted for nearly 45% of the team's goals this year.
"They made a huge impact on the team, not just in the water, but also outside of the water," Pardi said. "It's hard, you know, when you're a freshman and you're shy and you don't quite know what your place is on the team yet, in the water and socially."
ASU is accustomed to ending first period with the lead, but no matter the score, the program is always looking at what it can improve. Pardi started that philosophy, her returners adopted it and newcomers are now learning it.
"It's important to me that the girls aren't left there trying to sort it out on their own, but I'm there to kind of channel the focus and attention that we need," Pardi said.
Freshman attacker Karly Frangieh likes to approach each game with realistic expectations. Her focus centers around elevating herself and her team, and that means looking for weak points to fix whenever possible.
"A game's never going to go perfectly; there's always something that you can improve on, so we're constantly talking about that, trying to figure out different ways that we can improve," Frangieh said.
Looking ahead, the Sun Devils close out their regular season with five straight Mountain Pacific Sports Federation games against Stanford, Indiana, San Jose State, California and USC.
Frangieh has her sights set on the NCAA Tournament, but she knows that the team must play together if they want to get there.
"I think that we can make it to NCAAs," Frangieh said. "Definitely trying to get in there and beat one of the top four teams to get one of the wild cards. So that'll be really interesting to see how we play."
Pardi also shares NCAA hopes and believes that her group has a lot more potential they haven't unlocked yet.
"You have rarely seen us at our best; there's a lot more in this team that we haven't squeezed out yet,” Pardi said.
The Sun Devils will host Stanford after a two-week hiatus. The game is set for 1:00 p.m. on March 8 at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center in Tempe.
Edited by Jack Barron, Sophia Braccio and Natalia Jarrett.
Reach the reporter at holtzingerethan@gmail.com and follow @EthanZinger6 on X.
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Ethan is a sophomore studying sports journalism. This is his first semester at The State Press. He has also worked at Blaze Radio.
