Devils in Detail
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ASU Volleyball: Sun Devils look to pick up first Pac-12 win at UCLA

By Bo Wilkinson

LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 11: Arizona State Sun Devils mascot Sparky the Sun Devil stands on the court during a first-round game of the Pac-12 Basketball Tournament against the USC Trojans at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on March 11, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. USC won 67-64. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 11: Arizona State Sun Devils mascot Sparky the Sun Devil stands on the court during a first-round game of the Pac-12 Basketball Tournament against the USC Trojans at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on March 11, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. USC won 67-64. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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ASU volleyball will continue to look for their first conference victory as they head to UCLA to take on the No. 18 ranked team in the nation.

The Sun Devils head into the match with a 0-13 record in Pac-12 play and have continued to struggle to find any success against the Pac-12 gauntlet of ranked teams.

The conference currently has six teams that are ranked in the Top 25 (Stanford, Washington, Utah, Oregon, USC, UCLA) and two other teams that are receiving votes (Colorado, Oregon State).

In the first meeting between the two teams on the year, it was UCLA who came out victorious in the matchup between the two teams as middle blocker Madeline Gates led the team with 15 kills in the victory over Arizona State.

Since the match, Arizona State has continued to struggle as a team as they have yet to pick up a conference win due to the depth and power that the Pac-12 conference holds.

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The team not only has had to face the adversity of not winning a match, they have been without head coach Sanja Tomasevic for a couple weeks now due to the birth of her child. Assistant coach Carlos Moreno has taken over the head coach position for now but has also been unable to pick up the first win in Pac-12 play for ASU.

Arizona State has been able to get in some close matches during the year in search of the elusive first win including a match in which they nearly pulled off a massive upset against last year’s Pac-12 Champion in Washington.

The Devils have not been able to win a match due to inconsistent play throughout matches causing them to not be able to put together three great sets in one match.

For the Sun Devils to pull off the upset against UCLA they will need to slow down the attack that proves to be so deadly for the Bruins. The team is led by a very even attack that starts with setter Sara Sponcil who is the key to providing passes to teammates in order to keep the defense on their toes.

Another key player the maroon and gold will look to stop is the leader in kills for the team with 3.25 per set, Reily Buechler. Buechler has been vital to the success of the team all year long and is one of the best players in the country at the outside hitter position.

The keys for Arizona State in this match will be their ability to with fearless against a very difficult and tested top-ranked team in the nation.

Other keys will be slowing down the offensive attack of the Bruins that can easily get out of hand for opposing teams, allowing UCLA to run away with sets.

The last key for Arizona State will be to play a full match instead of playing only a couple sets of the match to be able to successfully knock off one of the top teams in the nation.

Next: ASU Volleyball: Devils fall once again to Trojans

The final key for Arizona State will be to play a full match instead of playing only a couple sets of the match to be able to successfully knock off one of the top teams in the nation.