Lexi Sweeney's parents knew early on that they needed to book a flight to Gulf Shores, Alabama, to see their daughter play in the NCAA beach volleyball tournament.
It didn't matter that Arizona State had never been to that stage. They knew something special was happening in Tempe.
“They definitely said we're going. They're like, 'You're going to make it happen.' It will happen. Let it exist,” Sweeney said.
The Sun Devils, who finished 11-13 last season, shocked many by winning all four games at the Tampa Invitational, defeating the top three teams in the rankings in the process.
“I always knew I was going to go,” Sweeney said. “On the trip to Florida, we played a top-ranked team the first weekend and won 4-0, so I thought, 'Wow, we're really good.'
As ASU won 21 games to go 2-2 in the Pac-12 Championship, Sweeney's parents' early investments started to become less impulsive. The 21 wins are tied for the most in a single season in ASU's 10-year history.
ASU will play No. 5 Cal Poly in the NCAA Tournament at 8 a.m. Friday.
Throughout ASU's ups and downs, several players have persevered in search of better days. Sweeney, a fifth-grader and Arcadia High School graduate, and his partner Taryn Ames, a Phoenix Desert graduate and Vista High School graduate, are a case in point. These two local products of his gelled this season and were the only pair to stick together this season.
Ames and Sweeney are both 20-9, which is the fourth-best single-season record for an ASU pair. For their careers, they are tied for third in individual wins with 61.
Both have more than four years of experience with the program and neither had seen much outside of the Pac-12 Tournament. A coaching change after the 2023 season saw head coach Brad Keenan retire after seven seasons. Both could have used it as an opportunity to play elsewhere, but decided not to.
“It didn't matter what was going on in the years we had,” Ames said. “I wasn't going to give up on this program because I love it and I wanted to help it grow. I hope I was able to do that in the years I spent here.”
Their perseverance paid off, and both will forever be known as part of the team that led ASU to its first national tournament.
“The girls on this team are really special and I think it's rare that you get along so well with them,” Sweeney said. “So for me, I always thought, why would I need to transfer when I have such good friends on this team? That's not something you can find anywhere.”
How did a middling beach volleyball program in the solid landscape of the Pac-12 become one of 16 teams in the national tournament?
The Sun Devils didn't have to look much for answers when head coach Christine Lohr was hired from Grand Canyon University last summer. Lohr has spent his eight seasons building a strong program at GCU, leading the team to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2022 and 2023.
Lohr knew rebuilding ASU's program would take some time and patience, but he was surprised by how quick the learning curve was.
She previously told her husband her goal was to take ASU to a national championship in his first two or three years. Her husband reminded her that she knew she was going to do it this year when the Sun Devils became one of six Pac-12 schools to participate in the tournament.
“If you set high goals, sometimes you can achieve them,” Lohr says. “They've exceeded all my expectations this year by working hard and really coming together as a team and it's been really fun. They're a really fun group and they support each other on and off the court.”