TEMPE – After a week off, Sun Devil Beach Volleyball is back in action this Friday and Saturday, March 17-18, at the Canyon Classic hosted by Grand Canyon.
Schedule and How To Follow:
On Friday, the Sand Devils will start the weekend with a dual against Pepperdine at noon MST. The remaining two games of the weekend will be on Saturday, starting with UC Davis at 12:30 p.m. MST before taking on the home team GCU at 3 p.m. MST. All three duals will be played in flights.
Fans can follow along on Twitter and Instagram (@SunDevilBeachVB) for updates. There will be no live scoring or streaming.
Sun Devil Outlook
Arizona State (4-3, 2-2 Pac-12)
Opponent Outlook
No. 18 Pepperdine (6-2)
Schedule and How To Follow:
On Friday, the Sand Devils will start the weekend with a dual against Pepperdine at noon MST. The remaining two games of the weekend will be on Saturday, starting with UC Davis at 12:30 p.m. MST before taking on the home team GCU at 3 p.m. MST. All three duals will be played in flights.
Fans can follow along on Twitter and Instagram (@SunDevilBeachVB) for updates. There will be no live scoring or streaming.
Sun Devil Outlook
Arizona State (4-3, 2-2 Pac-12)
- The Sun Devils have been off for a week, playing in the Pac-12 South Tournament prior to that. They earned a victory against Utah before falling to No. 1 UCLA and in a close 3-2 battle to No. 7 Stanford.
- The freshman duo of Adriana Nieves Papaleo and Carys Thomas currently have the best record on the team at 6-1, split between the fourth and fifth court.
- Second in wins is senior Sarah Waters and junior Taryn Ames, who have a 5-2 record this year. They have played on courts two and three so far this year.
- The court one pair of Lexi Sweeney and Kylie Wickley are currently 4-3 on the season, most recently winning in three sets against the top pair from No. 7 Stanford.
Opponent Outlook
No. 18 Pepperdine (6-2)
- The Waves went 3-1 at their Malibu invite last weekend, only giving up two matches combined to North Florida, UAB, and San Francisco after losing 2-3 to Arizona.
- Pepperdine ended with a record of 22-12 last season, and advanced to their sixth straight WCC Championships final, in which they fell 3-0 to LMU.
- ASU is 0-2 against Pepperdine in the all-time series. The teams last played in 2019 when the Sun Devils nearly upset the then-No. 5 Waves, falling 3-2.
- The 9-0 Aggies are currently in their program-best start to a season and have already collected three 5-0 wins and beat Utah 4-1 last weekend.
- UC Davis ended their season last year with a record of 14-16, setting a program record for wins and playing on the second day of the Big West Championships for the first time, going 2-2 on the weekend.
- This is the first meeting between these two programs.
- The Lopes season has been highlighted by three ranked wins over No. 14 Long Beach State, No. 10 Georgia State, and No. 11 Stetson. Other ranked duals saw them lose 2-3 to No. 4 USC, 1-4 to No. 2 Florida State, 0-5 to No. 3 UCLA, and 1-4 to No. 8 Loyola Marymount.
- Grand Canyon ended with a record of 26-7 last season and only lost to teams ranked top six in the nation. They made the NCAA Championships before exiting early with a 2-3 loss to Georgia State.
- The Sun Devils trail 1-4 in the all-time series record against the Lopes. The last win for ASU came in 2019 in a 3-2 victory in Phoenix.