Volleyball

No. 7 Sun Devils upset at home against UC Davis

TEMPE – After winning the 2025 Big 12 Championship, Arizona State and head coach JJ Van Niel took a night to celebrate. As the Sun Devils prepared for their home opener, they first stopped to receive championship rings for their accomplishment.

Van Niel stood proudly, a smile beaming across his face as junior middle blocker Zoey Burgess and her teammates danced around as they approached him and handed his players the jewelry. Even some graduated Sun Devil stars returned to celebrate: Colby Neal and Bailey Miller, both of whom were All-Big 12 First Team members in 2025. The ceremony brought a radiating, jubilant aura to Desert Financial Arena.

Unfortunately for the Sun Devils(5-2, 0-0 Big 12), that joyful feeling would be cut short as they fell to UC Davis(3-3) 3-1, ending a home winning streak that dated back to the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

“They played great,” Van Niel said. “We played sh**ty. There is really no excuse. They were on it, and we couldn’t get them in trouble at the service line. They were in system all night, and did a nice job offensively. We couldn’t slow them down.”

The Sun Devils were unable to get a true run of attacks going for much of the night. They did not hold a single lead until the beginning of the second set. Even when ASU set itself up well, the Aggies consistently dug balls off the floor and beat the Sun Devil blockers to the net.

Much of the Sun Devils’ struggles came from an inability to get its middle blockers involved in the attack. ASU’s middles picked up just six kills on Thursday night, with Burgess responsible for four of them.

“We have to pass better,” Van Niel said. “I mean, we were off the net the whole night. You can’t get your middles the ball when you’re not passing. So we weren’t passing well. They were passing well, and that tends to be the story in volleyball.”

Whether it was off free ball opportunities or normal set points, ASU’s setters were forced to go away from the net, leaving hitters with tough angles–allowing UC Davis to block many Sun Devil kill attempts.

Especially in the fourth set, as the Sun Devils tried to remain alive, graduate outside hitter Aniya Clinton received an Aggie serve just behind the attack line. Rather than bumping the ball forward, Clinton’s pass went almost directly horizontal, forcing senior setter Isabella Constintini to hustle backwards to set up a spike attempt.

While the Brazil native set the ball back for Clinton to spike, it was nowhere near a high-percentage kill area. The Aggie defenders moved across the net, jumping with their arms straight in the air.

They had the Sun Devils dead to rights.

Clinton struck the ball straight into the hands of the UC Davis outside hitters. The ball came straight down to the wooden floor in between all ASU players–not even star junior libero Faith Frame could prevent the point.

“Just focusing on putting our setters in a better position,” Frame said. “I think we could have passed a little bit better, put her more on the net, so she could run all three options. And then I also just think it just wasn’t our night. That’s all right. We’re gonna come back better.”

The lack of high-quality opportunities forced the Sun Devils to rely on their two early-season heroes in senior opposite side hitter Noemi Glover and junior outside hitter Una Vajagic. The pair combined for 31 of ASU’s 44 kills on the night, allowing the Aggies to focus their team defense on the Sun Devils almost one-dimensional attack.

Despite the loss, Glover grabbed herself a season-high 19 kills with a .250 hitting percentage and seven hitting errors. The former Big 12 Player of the Season might’ve had even more kills if it weren’t for the Sun Devils struggles in passing. For much of the evening, Glover did not get the opportunity to use that ruthless left wing of hers as she had to adjust to the sets of her teammates.

Vajagic, on the other hand, was not as effective as she had been early on in the season. Although the outside hitter finished the game as the second-leading killer with 12, she was also the Sun Devils’ leader in attacking errors with 11.

On many occasions, the junior swung as hard as she could, but, whereas her attempts would catch the line earlier in the year, he Thursday tries landed out of bounds, giving points to the Aggies. Even Vajagic’s serves, which helped lead the Sun Devils against Princeton, were off as she made three errors with just one ace.

“We need to step up better,” Frame said. “All of us are going to have off nights, and Una’s going to come back even better. Like we have no doubt about it. So yeah, we just need to step up for each other when we have those off nights.

Thursday’s loss seemed to be uncharacteristic for one of Van Niel’s teams, with 25 attacking errors and 12 serving errors. However, the performance against UC Davis rang eerily similar to the Sun Devils’ first loss of the season against then-No. 20 USC.

In both matches, ASU made over 20 attacking errors and wasn’t able to capitalize on free ball opportunities presented by its opponent. If the Sun Devils are to take the next step in competing for a National Championship, they will need to clean up their shortcomings come the end of the season.

“They weren’t making adjustments,” Van Niel said. “We were not on assignment, and offensively, we just weren’t there. We can’t have Una hitting zero, and it’s just that simple. You can’t have your outsides hitting zero. We’re swinging low, not playing the way we’ve been playing, so we just got to reset and be ready to go for the month.”

The positive news for the Sun Devils is that they will return to the court on Friday as they attempt to right the ship as they take on No. 24 Oregon at 6 p.m. MST at DFA.

“I think this should light a fire in us,” Frame said. “We should come back harder tomorrow and be ready to go. I’m pissed, and I’m ready to fight tomorrow. And so I think this will just light a fire under us, and we’re going to come back ready to fight tomorrow.”