Fan attendance in the JJ Van Niel era has skyrocketed since his arrival, with two of No. 8 Arizona State’s home games breaking into the top 10 this year after a trio of games did the same in 2024. But with an attendance record that has stood for over 10 years, Van Niel asked during a Monday press conference for ASU students to come out to the game to support the team. With the hopes of breaking the record, his message was received.
In front of 7,703 fans, a new program record this century, the Sun Devils had the second of their two matches this season against the Wildcats. After taking the first match in October 3-1, ASU felt confident heading to the match.
With Van Niel in his suit and gold tie, his team’s play on the court was business as usual, beating their in-state rival Arizona Wildcats in four sets, 25-11, 20-25, 25-18, 25-22
“I love DFA (Desert Financial Arena),” Van Niel said. “It’s so loud in there. Everyone is screaming and just all the support for our players.”
Taking the first set with ease, winning 25-11, ASU seemingly had its work cut out for it in the second set. After jumping ahead 4-1 to kick off the set, things quickly turned around, with a four-point run leading to Arizona taking their first lead of the match, up 9-8.
This ultimately led to Arizona holding on to the lead, allowing the Sun Devils to come close at times, even tying it at 20, but not enough to come back. The Wildcats ended up taking the set 25-20 and splitting the first two sets.
“When they took that second set, it was a bummer, but we’ve been there before,” Graduate Jillian Neal said. “We know how to handle it, so looking around at everyone and making sure they are brought in makes us feel comfortable.”
After dropping that second set, the Sun Devils came back out and turned things back around, taking set three 25-18 and bringing them within one set of closing out the match.
Needing just the one set to finish, the Sun Devils did their best to close it out, but the Wildcats didn’t let up. The back-and-forth went on till later in the set when Arizona went on a 4-1 run to jump ahead 21-17.
“We practice these scenarios a lot,” senior Sydney Henry said after about the fourth set. “In practice, we are down a specific amount and have to come back and win. So, it wasn’t anything new to us.”
Thanks to that practice, following an ASU timeout, the Sun Devils came out and went on an amazing 8-1 run to complete the comeback and take the set 25-22 and the match 3-1.
With the introduction of the new chat at Desert Financial Area, the Wildcat players and coaches will remember the term “Monster Block” for the next few days, hearing it chanted after all 17 of ASU’s blocks, a new season-high.
As one of the best blocking teams in the country, the Sun Devils continue to build off what they know. Coming into the match, they ranked 11th in the country in blocks per set while just 38th in total blocks. This mostly has to do with how quickly they have been finishing games this season, with just three teams ahead of them playing in as many, if not more, sets than they have.
“I think they do a really good job of not worrying about the score,” Van Niel said. “Hey, we’ve got to get some real points here, and we’re back. We have some nice test servers at the service line, and that was nice.”
The defense was on full display, even away from the net, with ASU holding the Wildcats to just a .092 hitting percentage, helped out a ton by the first set, where the Wildcats hit at a -.091 clip.
This was a huge help to Neal, who dominated both defensively and offensively, finishing second on the team in kills with 10 and first on the team in blocks with nine. Along with Neal, opposite hitter Noemie Glover finished with a team-high 13 kills, and outside hitter Bailey Miller finished tied with Neal with 10.
Helping out the team was a mix of two setters. At the top, Henry led the team in assists with 24 and behind her was redshirt sophomore Brynn Covell, who finished second with 13.
The girls will look to take their momentum and carry that with them onto the road, facing off once again against the Colorado Buffaloes, a team they beat 3-1 earlier in the season, on Saturday starting at 1 p.m.
