The ASU beach volleyball team travels to the “Paradise of the Pacific” for a weekend slate of four matches against No. 3 Hawaii and Boise State.
Greetings from “The Aloha State” await.
Coming off a full weekend of matches in Tucson and Tempe, the Arizona State beach volleyball team will journey over the tides of the Pacific Ocean for a two-day split of matches against No. 3 Hawaii and Boise State.
The Sun Devils (10-13) enter their final regular season tournament of the year having won seven of their last 10 matches. The team’s recent five-match win streak marked the second-longest streak in program history.
The Devils finished last weekend’s Arizona slate with a 2-3 overall record, defeating Colorado Mesa and Vanguard while fallng to No. 14 California, No. 15 Arizona and No. 17 Stetson.
With the Pac-12 Beach Volleyball Championships approaching at the end of the month, the Sun Devils hope to find more consistency against top-tier opponents.
“I hope we can kind of continue from what we did this weekend, where we just play a full match instead of just one good game,” said head coach Brad Keenan after the team’s win over Vanguard. “We’re going to need that playing Hawaii, who’s going to be really good.”
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“We’re so close with every single team,” Kwyn Johnson added. “To be able to finish the season going ‘3-2’ instead of ‘2-3’ with a lot of these teams like we have will be key for us. I think we’re just a few points away each time, so I think if we can just get a few of those points on our side, we can beat teams ‘3-2,’ ‘4-1,’ ‘5-0,’ whatever, and we could actually do really well at the end of the season.”
ASU will kick off tournament action Saturday with a matchup against Boise State at 10 a.m. PT.
The Broncos enter the Hawaii Tournament with a 1-7 overall record, with their lone victory coming against Portland back on March 29.
The Sun Devils and the Broncos have faced five common opponents this season in Tulane, California, San Jose State, Stanford and Washington. Arizona State holds a 2-6 record in such games, while Boise State has gone 0-6.
The Broncos’ No. 1 pairing of Sabryn Roberts and Janell Walley have accumulated the team’s best duo record at 2-6. As a team, Boise State is 5-35 overall in matches throughout each of their five lineups.
The Sun Devils will conclude Saturday’s action with a 2 p.m. match against the tournament hosts in No. 3 Hawaii.
The Rainbow Wahine cruise into tournament action with a 28-3 overall record and arguably the best resume in collegiate beach volleyball. The team has defeated No. 1 UCLA, No. 4 USC twice, No. 12 Grand Canyon twice and No. 13 Stanford twice in their dominant run.
Since starting the season at 5-3, Hawaii has dropped just 13 match points in their win streak. Three Rainbow Wahine lineups currently hold a match win streak of 12 or more, including a jaw-dropping 19-0 mark from Emily Maglio and Ka’iwi Schucht since they took over as the No. 1 pairing.
With star power across each lineup, the Sun Devils will have to ward off the big runs that the Rainbow Wahine will look to open throughout each match. Long rallies and smart ball placement are to be expected from a high-caliber opponent.
The key to the match will be who can establish control of the ball for longer periods of time. The team with the best conditioning will likely come away with the victory.
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The Sun Devils will wrap up this weekend with two more matches against the same teams on Sunday. ASU will face Boise State a 9 a.m. PT followed by an 11 a.m. PT rematch with Hawaii.
All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.