Arizona State to host first two rounds of NCAA Volleyball Tournament

(Photo: Austin Hurst/WCSN)

TEMPE – Anticipation filled a theatre room inside the Carson Student Athletic Center as the NCAA volleyball selection show entered its final act. Arizona State players, family members and members of the staff had seen 56 teams get their names, seeds and opponents announced but hadn’t yet heard their own name called. The players chatted amongst themselves, waiting and wondering. Would Arizona State host the first two rounds? Who would it play?

Finally, 40 minutes after the selection show started, the Sun Devils had answers.

The players jumped up in celebration, cheering, clapping and hugging each other as they were announced as the No. 3 seed in Nebraska’s quadrant of the tournament, meaning that they would in fact host the first two rounds. Soon, their opponents were revealed. New Hampshire, Colorado State and Texas A&M were the teams making the trip to Tempe.

The room quieted down after, but the smiles and enjoyment didn’t fade as the show continued on. It was a scene that seemed so far away just a few years ago before head coach JJ Van Niel got his hands on the program.

Graduate outside hitter Roberta Rabelo remembers a time before Van Niel and a culture that he created in the wake of his arrival that changed the program. A culture that is more than just a team, a culture where players interact off the court, not just on it.

“Committing to that culture, everyone committing to that culture and connecting outside and on the court was really important to just keep the program going in a different direction than what it was,” Rabelo said.

In 2022 Arizona State finished 13-19, its third straight season with a below .500 record. Before the 2023 season, Arizona State made a move that changed the course of the program. JJ Van Niel, USC’s assistant coach, was brought to Tempe to turn around the program. In his first year, Van Niel won the (at the time) second-most games in program history, 28, en route to the program’s first Sweet 16 appearance since 1995. This year he’s won 29 games before the tournament has even started and his team will host a regional for the first time in program history.

“I would be lying if (I was thinking when I first got here), ‘Oh yeah, I think in year two, we’re gonna be hosting the first two rounds of the tournament,’ that would probably be a little silly,” Van Niel said, before continuing to give credit to his players, not himself. “It’s a testament honestly to the players that I’ve had. Last year we had a pretty big chip on our shoulder, and I think even to some extent this year.”

Arizona State has had many impressive volleyball teams in the past. ASU made the NCAA tournament 11 times from its inaugural edition in 1981 to 1995. However, Arizona State only made the tournament eight times from 1996 to 2022 and hadn’t made a Sweet 16 appearance since 1995.

Van Niel was brought in after four straight losing coaches and he had to create the right environment for his players to thrive.

“He is extremely analytical when it comes to volleyball, but at the same time, he is so focused on all of us as people,” Kjolhede said. “To be the best coach that you can be you have to have both and he has both and more. I wish I could have JJ for all five of my years, and I’m just glad that I could have this one.”

Arizona State’s culture change was severely needed before Van Niel was brought in. Rabelo was extremely grateful that the athletic department made the change thinking about what was best for the girls on the team, recognizing that, unfortunately, some athletic departments across the college landscape don’t think that way.

Rabelo remembers how after Van Niel arrived in Tempe she and her teammates who were a part of the previous era helped build his new culture up.

“We were only nine people,” Rabelo said. “We were able to bond together, us nine, build this foundation and wait for other freshmen or transfers in the program.”

Since then, the culture has grown so strong that the players and coaches treat each other more like a family than as a simple team, and it’s a two-way street.

“Every day I love getting to come in,” Van Niel said. “I think the connections that (the players) created with each other and our staff are really, really special. There’s such a genuine care about the human being, not the volleyball player, not the students, not the coach.”

Van Niel has been able to succeed with a mix of players from the previous and current coaching regimes. Kjolhede as well as graduate setter Argentina Ung and graduate libero Mary Shroll are big parts of the team who have transferred in either this year or last year, but players like Rabelo, graduate middle blocker Claire Jeter and team leader in kills and senior outside hitter Geli Cyr have all carved out big roles on the team after spending their entire collegiate career at ASU or transferring to Tempe prior the Van Niel era.

Positive vibes are great, but Van Niel didn’t transform the program into a top-ten team in the nation with key players from the previous regime by just having a good culture. The players had to develop and Van Niel had to put his analytical and numerical knowledge to use.

Van Niel has always been interested in numbers. After graduating from USC he went into the finance world. It was only after starting to play volleyball recreationally and stumbling upon a beach volleyball tryout that he started to coach.

He climbed the ranks, coaching at every level from high school to college to Team USA before ending up at Arizona State where he and his staff have used a wealth of volleyball and analytical knowledge to put the best product on the court.

“Whenever we have to (scout) another team everything is already done,” Rabelo said. “They literally give us all the numbers and all the information, and then that’s when we start practicing and going off of that. … That’s when we are able to practice really, really hard and spend time on the court more than off the court.”

Van Niel and his staff research their opponents heavily. Rabelo says they identify the best offensive and defensive players on opposing teams. The staff leans into the number of players in specific situations and creates strategies based on that information.

An example that Rabelo gave was if one player struggles more with passing than her teammates they might attack that player on serves. It makes sense, if a player struggles with passing and they’re forced to pass the play won’t operate as efficiently as it otherwise could.

In regards to using analytics to prepare for upcoming matches, Van Niel says that you look at yourself and your opponents. He and his staff start off with large areas of information before diving into the depths where the game-changing information lies.

“I think as you dig in you try to find where’s a small area we can extract a point or two, and if you can find a few of those hopefully that makes a difference between winning or losing a match,” Van Niel said. “… (Assistant coach Ellen Andrews) does a great job, (assistant coach Shaughn McDonald) does a great job, (assistant coach Preslie Anderson) does a great job. I got an awesome staff that works so hard. We ask a lot of questions, ‘what if this? What if this?’ I think that really helps when it comes to game day.”

Now that Arizona State knows who it will be playing in the first round and the two potential second-round opponents it could face should it make it that far that process will get underway again. Watching the selection show with a purpose and now having to formulate and execute a plan wasn’t a possibility before Van Niel, but now it’s the reality. A very different reality than what Rabelo had during her freshman year.

“We would watch the selection show, and as a freshman I had no idea what was going on,” Rabelo said. “Because we were not going to be selected we were just watching to watch. Then seeing where I’ve been and where I am right now, and where the team is, the program is, and everything that changed, it’s just so good.”