ASU Volleyball: ASU-Cal Preview
By Alec Henden
The Arizona State Women’s Volleyball team resumes their schedule after a week off from game action with a road matchup against the California Golden Bears.
The break came at a pretty opportune time for the Sun Devils, as they have been struggling mightily as of late, losing eight straight matches, including a winless start in Pac-12 play.
After giving a ranked Oregon school a tough match that went five sets, the Sun Devils have won only one set in their next three match-ups leading up to the Bay Area road trip.
California has faced its share of struggles this season as well. The team enters the match with a 7-9 overall record, and a 1-5 conference record. Their lone Pac-12 win came in their last match with Colorado.
This match should be a fairly even contest given each team’s early season struggles. If the Golden Bears are to have success they will need to rely off the production of freshman outside hitter Bailee Huizenga.
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Huizenga is the team leader in kills for the season with 168, and averages just over three kills per set. Huizenga plays a huge role in the California offense and is important for the team to score points.
Senior libero Maddy Kerr is the defensive specialist in the Golden Bears rotation. Kerr is the team leader in digs by a wide margin with 249, and an average of 4.15 digs per set.
For the Sun Devils the key to success against another struggling team is to be more efficient on offense, the team has had a tough time executing on offense and has forced too many errors to have success. The Sun Devils have an abysmal .187 hit percentage, while allowing an astounding .234 percent on defense.
The match will take place on Friday at 6:00 p.m. and can be seen on Pac-12 Arizona.