Sand Devils Back In Action At Canyon Classic This Weekend

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)

• 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. 

UC Davis (9-0) 

• 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…