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#25 Volleyball Heads to Bay Area

ASU at Stan Cal Notes Opens in a new window Best Starts in Sun Devil Volleyball History Opens in a new window Four-Year Sun Devils in 2023-24 Opens in a new window
#25 Volleyball Heads to Bay Area#25 Volleyball Heads to Bay Area
Thomas Fernandez
TEMPE – Ranked for the first time since 2018, No. 25 Sun Devil Volleyball is heading on their first Pac-12 road trip of the season, traveling to No. 3 Stanford on Friday before a match at Cal on Sunday afternoon.

How to Follow
Friday's top-25 matchup at the Cardinal will be at 6 p.m. MST/PDT and will be on Pac-12 Insider. The Sunday match against the Bears will begin at noon MST/PDT and will be on the Cal Live Stream. There will be live stats for both matches and fans can follow along on social media on X (@SunDevilVB) and Instagram (@sundevilvolleyball).

Sun Devil Outlook
No. 25 Arizona State (14-0, 2-0 Pac-12)
  • The Sun Devils are ranked No. 25, their first time being in the AVCA Coaches Poll since October 8, 2018. That next match in 2018 was the last ranked matchup ASU has been in. Additionally, this is the first time a new head coach at ASU has been ranked since 1983 when Debbie Brown's squad was ranked in her first season.
  • Arizona State kept the perfect start to the season alive last weekend, going a perfect 2-0 to improve to 14-0, the third-best start in program history. A win on Friday would tie the best start in the NCAA era of 15-0, which was achieved back in 2015. The best start is 21-0, which was in the inaugural season back in 1973.
  • To keep that perfect record, ASU started by sweeping in-state rival Arizona, the first home sweep against them since 2019. Then the Sun Devils beat the Huskies in four sets for their first home win against them since 2018. This is the first 2-0 start to Pac-12 play since 2015.
  • No. 3 Stanford is the highest-ranked opponent Arizona State has faced since the Cardinal was ranked No. 2 in 2019. The last time the Sun Devils beat a top-five team was in 2013 when ASU upset No. 2 Texas in straight sets.
  • Senior opposite Marta Levinska is the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week for the second week in a row. This is the first time in Arizona State history that the same student-athlete has won weekly awards in consecutive weeks. It's also the second time ever that ASU has had a weekly award in consecutive weeks (also in 2013). For Levinska, it's her fourth weekly honor overall in her career, one of three Sun Devils to ever reach that number (also Macey Gardner and Christine Garner).
  • The serving game continues to be a strong point for Arizona State. As a team, they are ranked third in the nation in aces per set with 2.41 and eighth in total aces (111). Senior opposite Marta Levinska is leading the team and the Pac-12 with 24 aces, already nine more than she had last season. She's 29th in aces per set with .52. Graduates Mary Shroll and Shannon Shields are right behind her with 23 and 22 aces, respectively. For all three of those individuals, their ace totals are already more than they had all of 2022.

Opponent Outlook
No. 3 Stanford (9-2, 2-0 Pac-12)
  • Last weekend, the Cardinal swept Colorado in straight sets. They are on a three-match win streak having bested Louisville, California, and Colorado. Currently, Stanford is 9-2 this season with a 2-0 conference record. The team is 4-2 against ranked teams this season.
  • In 2022, Stanford was 27-5 (19-1 Pac-12) and won the Pac-12 Regular Season Title. Their season ended with San Diego in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. Within their win column last year, they defeated No. 2 Nebraska and No. 3 Minnesota. 
  • With a record of 7-77 historically against Stanford, Arizona State will have a challenge as they face up against the team this weekend. The most recent win vs the Cardinal was in 2021 when the Sun Devils won 3-1. 
California (11-2, 0-2 Pac-12)
  • This past weekend, California started the conference season at home with two losses against Stanford and Utah. The Bears' overall season record is 11-2, having gone undefeated in non-conference play.
  • Last season, the Bears were 7-23 (0-20 Pac-12). The Bears have more wins at this point in the season than in total of the 2022 season.  
  • The Sun Devils' all-time record against the Bears is 42-33. Arizona State swept the season series against California in 2022, extending the overall win streak against the Bears to four in a row.