TEMPE, AZ- Arizona Beach Volleyball (17-4, 6-2) goes undefeated in the ASU Tournament, knocking off the Sun Devils in the final game!
Volleyball in the desert? You bet! In the midst of another great year, the Arizona Beach Volleyball team capped off a tremendous weekend while in the ASU Tournament!
Traveling all the way to Tempe on Saturday, the Wildcats opened play of the ASU Tournament, by facing Abilene Christian on Saturday morning.
Arizona Wildcats
On a beautiful day in Tempe, the Wildcats took on the other Wildcats to begin the day. Looking to make quick work of ACU, Arizona got to work, displaying their dominance early on.
First it was Olivia Hallaran and Mia Mason winning the first match 21-13 and 21-7. Then it was Jonny Baham and Brooke Burling that 21-9 and 21-14 in the second match to make it 2-0.
Arizona would then win their six, subsequent sets by finals of 21-8, 21-8, 21-8, 21-16, 21-8 and 21-11 to steal the game by a 5-0 final!
However, they were not done there! Hours later, the Wildcats would return to the sand to take on Cal Poly, as part of their double-header.
From the start Arizona fell behind early, but didn’t get rattled, despite losing the opening two sets by finals of 21-13 and 21-7.
Luckily, that didn’t last long as the Wildcats bounced right back, winning their next four matches to steal their second game of the day by a 4-1 final!
Not returning to action until Sunday, Arizona picked-up right they left off against Utah, winning all five matches in dominating fashion!
First it was Hallaran and Mason winning 21-17 and 15-10 in two of three sets, followed by Baham and Burling winning 21-17 and 21-16 to put the Cats up 2-0.
Hoping to continue their strong play, Natalie Anselmo and Madison Rigdon won 21-11 and 21-11 in two sets, Sarah Blacker and Jasmine Safar won 21-16 and 21-18 in the fourth match. That left it up to Dana Parker and Ainise Havili to come up with the sweep!
Together, the duo were up to the task, winning both sets 21-13 and 21-13 to deliver the 5-0 sweep for the Cats!
Next up was against hated ASU in front of their home crowd. Despite ASU winning the first match, the Wildcats responded well by winning 21-17, 21-16, 21-15, 21-18, 23-21, 21-19, 21-10 and 21-18 to win the match by a 4-1 final!
https://twitter.com/ArizonaBVB/status/1115058067299680256
With the clean sweep of the ASU Tournament, the Wildcats improve to 17-4 (6-2) on the year, with big things on the horizon! The team also moved up to No. 13 in the rankings!
Arizona will return to action on Friday, when they take on Ottawa University (AZ) in the afternoon, followed by Santa Clara in the early evening. They will finish their weekend series of games, when they take on New Mexico followed by Santa Clara again a little later in the day.
At Zona Zealots, we’re proud of the way the Cats competed, and only hope they can continue their strong play heading into the weekend! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!