(Photo: Trey Lanthier/WCSN)
As usual, the Pac-12 volleyball media and American Volleyball Coaches Association preseason polls were released in the last few weeks preceding the season.
To nearly nobody’s surprise, defending Pac-12 champion Stanford was predicted to top the conference once again, and nine teams from the Pac-12 landed in the AVCA top-25.
However, the team immediately beneath the Cardinal in the Pac-12 rankings wasn’t a normal sight. Instead of national and historical powerhouses UCLA, USC or Washington, Arizona State was there, predicted to finish second in the conference.
This is a program that hasn’t finished in the top-half in the conference standings once since head coach Jason Watson took the helm in 2008. Even last season, the Sun Devils finished seventh.
Looking at the numbers, it’d be a confusing sight to see ASU in at the preseason No. 2 position, its highest since 1994. With that in mind, ASU also plays in the strongest conference in the country as nine Pac-12 teams made NCAA Tournament bids in 2014, and the same amount currently sit in the preseason top-25.
All things considered, it’s not a shocking event at all. In fact, it should be expected that ASU has this amount of preseason notoriety. The Sun Devils return every single starter from a season ago. That includes AVCA All-American Macey Gardner, Pac-12 All-Freshman Halle Harker and the third season main attackers will have with senior setter Bianca Arellano.
“It just shows the work that we’ve put in,” Gardner said. “And we’ve seen some return that people are actually starting to take notice of, so that’s really nice for us.”
For various reasons, the Sun Devils climbed from conference dark horses to favorites with a target on their backs, and the attention is well-merited.
A Long Time Coming
The 2012 recruiting class saw the likes of Gardner and middle blockers Whitney Follette and Mercedes Binns come to Tempe, and in their first season with varying contribution levels, the Sun Devils made the NCAA Tournament before a first-round, five-set loss to Oklahoma. Gardner posted a freshman record 577 kills to help lead ASU to 20 wins, the most since 1993.
In 2013, Arellano and senior outside hitter Andi Lowrance transferred in from Tennessee and Seattle, respectively. ASU broke into the rankings following a strong preseason, most notably with a win over then-No. 2 Texas. The Sun Devils skyrocketed to No. 15 in the country, but followed that attention with a seven-match losing streak, and crawled its way into the NCAA Tournament where they dropped a five-set match against BYU.
2014 saw a much more mature Sun Devil team focused on the process rather than the spotlight they were undeniably in during the season. Despite their seventh-place finish, the Sun Devils were much more consistent and mindful, and that included staying in the AVCA rankings throughout the entirety of the season. Junior outside hitters BreElle Bailey and Kizzy Ricedorf saw increased roles after a freshman year that saw both players starting the majority of the season.
And so here they are: no longer an unexpected entity, but instead, the Sun Devils have targets on their backs. Talking to Watson and his team, however, their demeanors show anything but any type of pressure.
“I think they understand what it all means,” Watson said. “And I think they’re keeping a pretty healthy perspective on it. It’s exciting, it’s clearly something we’ve worked towards, but it’s the start. It’s not the end… If nothing else, we get a couple more fans to come to our matches, and that’s awesome for us.”
New talent equals more competition
Given the emphasis the Sun Devils had on managing their emotions all of last season, the calming presence is to be expected. More importantly, the Sun Devils bring in six new players, highlighted by sisters Cassidy and Kylie Pickrell.
Cassidy Pickrell, a junior outside hitter who transferred in from UC Irvine, could be especially important immediately for Watson. As a sophomore, she led UC Irvine with 407 kills, and she showed her abilities both offensively and defensively during the Maroon and Gold scrimmage. If she can find a groove with Arellano quickly, she takes immediate pressure off Gardner to provide consistent power from the left side.
“I like what (Cassidy) is bringing to the team,” Watson said. “You got a little Texas flair to us, and that’s not so bad. You’re not supposed to mess with it, so that’s kind of nice too.”
In all likelihood, outside of Cassidy Pickrell, the Sun Devils newest additions will see spot duty throughout the season, but their contributions during practices is where they will have the biggest impact.
“These new freshmen are kind of feisty and swaggery,” Binns said. “So it’s helped us kind of change our demeanor a little bit.”
Watson has called this group the deepest pool of talent he’s had during his tenure in Tempe, and for good reason. Each position is now two to three players deep, something that wasn’t always the case in previous seasons, and something that makes ASU a lot less likely to be derailed by injuries.
“We don’t want to be this program that peaks in 2015,” Watson said. “But we want to sustain some stuff… They’re competing like crazy.”
Playing like a top-level team
With expectations of playing like a top-tier team in an elite conference, Watson looked at his team and knew he had to make adjustments to suit the assumed level of play.
“If we’re going to match where we’re predicted to be, then we certainly need to be better in the sideout game,” Watson said. “We need to be able to get our middles involved, and we need to be able to score points on our first ball sideout.”
A more focused approach to the first ball of a rally and running the middles more often means employing offensive concepts that haven’t been seen in ASU’s matches in seasons past.
For Arellano, that means more speed.
“With the improvements we’ve made in passing and serve receive, I think we’ll be able to run a faster offense this year, so especially in pushing the middles,” she said.
A faster offense is advantageous to shorter attackers as it gives less time for opponents to get two solid blockers up on the attack. For Cassidy Pickrell and Gardner, who are both an even 6-feet tall, getting cleaner looks will prove positive as the myriad of talented and tall blockers in the Pac-12 keys in on the left side attack.
“I feel like our defense is a lot better,” Watson said. “I feel like we’re blocking a lot better than we ever have. I really just like where we’re at, and I’m cautiously optimistic at this stage.”
The Sun Devils were 1-7 against the top quarter of the conference (Stanford, Washington, Arizona and Oregon), but four of the losses went to at least four sets, three coming in five.
They were on the cusp a season ago, and now this they are expected, both internally and externally, to perform up to the rankings. A fourth-consecutive NCAA appearance would be the program’s longest streak since 1992-1995. A top-3 finish in the conference would be ASU’s highest since 1986.
Where ASU will be for its hypothetical first game of the 2015 NCAA Tournament is hard to predict given the bloodbath-like nature of the Pac-12, but what is for sure is that the team has a great perspective in how far the program has come in a handful of years.
“Freshman year, we put a lot of work in,” Follette said. And with all the seniors, they just kind of set a really good atmosphere and environment for us to play in, for us to improve in. From freshman year until now, it’s been unreal to really see it in each other, especially in us seniors we really see how far we’ve come.
“We’re just really excited. This is it. This is our last year, our last chance to really make a difference on the team and on the program, so I’m just excited to do that.”
You can reach Zac Pacleb on Twitter @ZacPacleb or via email at zacpacleb@gmail.com
