(Photo: Trey Lanthier/WCSN)
Playing the game better, longer.
That has been the motto for the No. 19 Arizona State Sun Devils and head coach Jason Watson during all of the 2014 season. In press conferences, games, and even in previous years, maintaining a high level of play throughout an entire match has been a point of emphasis.
In comparison to last season, Watson’s team has done just that when looking at when ASU is closing out matches. Fifteen wins came in straight sets for the Sun Devils in 2013, but they also went only 1-4 in matches that went the full five sets. This season, their record in such games stands at 5-2 on the year.
“I think one of the signs that this team has always had, I think – and it’s remarkable to me – I’m really impressed by just how resilient they can be,” Watson said. “How you can go from not playing well, then go the very next match, put it together, and I think that’s what you have to be in this conference.”
ASU is playing much more consistently this year than in previous seasons. Most notably, the Sun Devils have struggled mightily in October, compiling a 3-21 record and winning just 29 percent of the sets played from 2011-2013.
However, that trend has changed for the better. As it stands, ASU is an even .500 through ten conference matches, and in a conference that boasts seven ranked teams, there’s something to be said about the improving play from the Sun Devils. More tangible results of improvement can be seen in ASU’s four set victory over then-No. 9 USC and their most recent five-set upset over then-No. 11 Oregon, both wins coming on the road.
A big part of that has been the always-impressive play from junior outside hitter Macey Gardner. The Arizona native’s production has jumped in Pac-12 play, going from 4.12 kills per set to 4.71. She is also third on the team in digs with 137 digs in conference matches.
That being said, there still lies a cause for concern. Despite those impressive wins, ASU has yet to sweep a weekend’s matches, dropping matches to unranked Utah and Oregon State just days after coming away with big upset wins.
“Every night, every match is just kind of a mental battle in a way just because you have to – you spend hours and hours playing for just one match at a time,” Gardner said.
“And so you have film, you have practices throughout the week then when the match actually does come, you have to be ready on their tendencies and if something changes, it’s definitely mentally fatiguing but it’s also a good challenge and it’s really exciting at the same time, so you have adrenaline, plus that mental exhaustion.”
Every team deals with a type of lull in the middle of the season. Every team deals with injuries. Every team must fight through some sort of adversity.
But why can’t ASU seem to break that .500 mark in the Pac-12, even when there are chances to pick up wins over unranked teams in the conference?
Simply put, they have every reason to break that threshold, but they just haven’t yet.
It sounds like we’re beating a dead horse here, but the depth of the conference cannot be understated. Yes, Oregon State and Utah are unranked, but both teams entered the Pac-12 season with just two losses between them.
In fact, the entire Pac-12 had a combined 184-19 record before conference play began and teams began to beat up on each other.
“You have to be really, really resilient, and certainly there’s two teams that have separated themselves from everybody else, (No.1) Stanford and (No. 2) Washington, but there’s a big group of us that are within one match of each other,” Watson said. “And can those teams continue to be resilient? Can those teams continue to progress?
“And the teams that can are going to, I think, in this second half, separate themselves a little bit further from that pack, but I never felt like this group isn’t willing and wanting to prepare to be better. It’s just some nights, try as you might, it just isn’t going to happen for you.”
Clearly, Watson’s team has showcased a better understanding of what it takes to win in the Pac-12, something the young Sun Devils struggled with a year ago when they admittedly got too caught up in the national rankings and expectations.
“We kind of take each game as the same whether they’re [ranked] one, two, twelve – it doesn’t really matter,” Gardner said.
The constant focus required to prepare and compete match to match is a big request to make of student-athletes, but if ASU hopes to break into consideration as consistently quality programs such as Stanford, Oregon and USC, that focus has to be something that remains consistent and it is something that has been trending toward that consistency greatly since Watson arrived to Tempe seven years ago.
So can they do it?
I believe they can.
Even without the services of junior middle blocker Whitney Follette for the first half of conference season, the level of offensive play never seemed to waiver. Despite the struggles from sophomore opposite hitter BreElle Bailey that led to Watson inserting freshmen Kwyn Johnson and Madison McDaniel in the lineup, there was a turnaround, as Bailey got back on track last weekend in Oregon.
The Sun Devils are mentally handling adversity with much more maturity than last season, when it appeared that the team would fold in similar situations. Through 22 matches, ASU has dropped exactly one-half of the opening sets. However, they have recovered to come out victorious in eight of those matches, proving their ability to bounce back from a slow start.
Now, with the Pac-12 gearing up for the second round of match-ups, teams will begin to separate from each other in the race to boost their resumes for the NCAA Tournament committee, and ASU is no exception.
“We’re doing a really good job of just being perpetually dissatisfied in the gyms,” Gardner said. “So definitely these last half of the conference [games] is really important to us and I think we’re doing a really good job. We just got to continue.”
Last season, the Sun Devils squeaked in as the ninth and final team to make it to the tournament, their second consecutive appearance.
All signs point toward ASU playing in their third straight postseason as they rank No. 31 in the NCAA RPI poll.
“I think the RPI does an OK job of reflecting the strength of teams overall, and the rankings are a reflection of the coaches’ opinions of those teams,” Watson said. “And so there is always going to be some inherent bias of people’s opinions of teams.”
Nonetheless, the overall strength of the conference is something that will surely benefit every Pac-12 team, and the conference will more than likely send the most teams out of any conference in the country.
“If you’re not prepared and you don’t play well, then anyone is going to beat you,” Watson said. “And so it’s a disappointing lesson to learn, but the reality is everybody in this conference is really good.”
That being said, where does that leave the Sun Devils?
In the spirit of complete transparency: I do not know.
The game of volleyball is more unpredictable than most sports, and the Pac-12 only emphasizes that trait. Watson coined the “randomness of human performance” as a way to keep in perspective the highs and lows of the season, and that in itself is a promising sign in how the Sun Devils are approaching the latter half of the conference season.
I wholeheartedly believe that the Sun Devils will finish above .500 in conference when all is said and done, but that randomness that Watson alluded to is something that can rear its head either positively or negatively at any moment. Ten regular season matches remain on ASU’s schedule, and the only way to find out what will happen is to just let it happen.
“The tournament doesn’t happen this weekend,” Watson said. “It happens in five more weeks, so there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
You can reach Zac Pacleb on Twitter @ZacPacleb or via email at zacpacleb@gmail.com
