Say this about Arizona State the last couple of seasons.
The Wildcats got plenty of volleyball bang for their bucks.
In the spring 2021 season, ASU finished 6-14, all in the Pac-12, and went five sets eight times. The Wildcats went 3-5 in those matches.
Last fall, ASU went 14-17, including 7-13 in the Pac-12, and went five 11 times. The eventual five-set record was 3-8, and that included a 25-15, 24-26, 25-17, 24-26, 15-11 early-season loss to eventual national semifinalist Louisville; to then-No. 13 Oregon; to then-No. 11 Washington; and to then-No. 21 Washington State.
It was suggested to Coach Sanja Tomasevic that her team seemed to be riding a roller-coaster last fall.
“In the spring of 2021 and the fall of 2021, we played 19 matches that went five sets,” Tomasevic said with a smile. “We lost 13 of those. So when you say roller-coaster, I’d say that’s accurate. But I’d say that we got our money’s worth for the young team that we had. We learned a lot. Talent is not an issue.”
Tomasevic, a Serbian who won an NCAA title as a player at Washington in 2005 and then played professionally in Greece and Italy, enters her sixth season at Arizona State.
Her record in her first head-coaching job is 61-85, and year in and year out, ASU has been a tough opponent and seemingly so close to breaking through. The program, which has been 19 times, has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2015.
That was also the last year for coach Jason Watson, who had a four-year NCAA run at the school before leaving for Arkansas. The star of that team, Macey Gardner (now Donathan) is his assistant at Arkansas.
Stevie Mussie had the job for one season in 2016 when the Sun Devils went 12-20, 5-15.
Tomasevic was an assistant coach at UTSA and then at Miami for Keno Gandara, who was an assistant at Washington during her time there. Their head coach was Jim McLaughlin, a huge influence on both.
When Tomasevic got the Arizona State job, the cupboard was hardly full.
“I wish I hadn’t give away all nine scholarships like I did the first year I was coach. But we didn’t have bodies in the gym. I had six players in the gym, and three of them were walk-ons. So we offered scholarships to anyone who wanted to come in,” she said and laughed.
“There were some really good kids. We got lucky with some of them, but there were some that hurt us in the long run. And you don’t get rid of them because it’s not…
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