ASU Volleyball: California preview

(Photo: Kaley Kurowski/WCSN)

No. 14 Arizona State looks to rebound from being swept at the hands of the No. 7 Stanford Cardinal as the Sun Devils travel further north to take on the unranked California Golden Bears in Berkeley.

In order to be successful, the Sun Devils must clean up the mistakes that plagued them in the match against Stanford. In that match, they recorded 20 attacking errors, three service errors and hit just .138 as a team.

The other thing that ASU has work on is getting back to its defensive mentality as a team. The Sun Devils are fourth in the Pac-12 and 14th in the country in blocks per set but only managed four total blocks in three sets against the Cardinal.

Defense fuels the Sun Devils offense, but recently, they have struggled to convert blocks and digs into points. ASU has always been a good digging team but for the amount of swings it had, 109, only being able to convert 35 of them into kills is not a very high number.

For the Sun Devils, continued production from the right side will be huge. Senior Whitney Follette and junior BreElle Bailey have anchored ASU offensively over the last few weekends. Bailey has recorded nine or more kills in each of her last five games.

Follette has served as a stabalizing force for the Sun Devils since Macey Gardner’s and Kizzy Ricedorff’s injuries. Her transition to the right side has been critical, and the production has followed.

For the Golden Bears, there are a couple players to watch. Offensively, Lillian Schonenwise leads the team in kills at 2.85 per set.

Defensively, junior captain Maddy Kerr leads the team in digs at 4.24 per set – good for fifth in the Pac-12.

ASU sits at 6-5 in Pac-12 play and 17-5 on the season. This game will be streamed live by Cal and starts at 7 p.m.

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