ASU Volleyball: Sun Devils Set to Meet BYU in NCAA Tourney

Photo courtesy of Pac-12.com.
 
The Arizona State women’s volleyball team will make its 17th trip to the NCAA Tournament in program history this week, traveling to Hawaii for the opening round. The Sun Devils will meet BYU on Friday at 8 p.m. MT at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.

ASU (19-13, 8-12 Pac-12) is one of nine schools from the Pac-12 Conference to receive a bid to the tournament. Their pod also includes site host and No. 11 seed Hawaii (24-4), who takes on Idaho State as part of first round action. The winners will play at 10 p.m. MT Saturday for a chance to advance to the third round match in Los Angeles, Calif., on Dec. 13.

Last week, ASU split the final two games of the regular season, defeating California in four sets at Wells Fargo Arena before losing to in-state rival Arizona in Tucson.

Against Cal, the Sun Devils opened with a pair of excellent sets, hitting .486 in the first set and .414 in the second. Macey Gardner had 22 kills and Nora Tuioti-Mariner set a new season high with 16. Tuioti-Mariner’s hitting percentage of .640 is the seventh-highest individual percentage in the Pac-12 this season.

In the match against UofA, ASU took the win in the second set, but then fell short in a pair of rigorous frames.

BYU (22-6, 15-3 WCC) closed out the regular season by falling 3-2 to San Diego in the WCC Championship game. Alexa Gray has paced the Cougars with 414 kills on the season. Camry Godfrey recorded 1168 assists.

Arizona State and BYU last met on Oct. 25, 1999, when the Cougars secured a 3-1 win in Tempe. The Sun Devils last defeated BYU on Oct. 3, 1988, 3-1, in Provo, Utah.