Volleyball

Service line could prove key to No. 12 ASU’s success or lack thereof in 2026

The fourth set sat 9-6 in favor of Arizona State. After ASU’s crushing Saturday football loss to Baylor, fans at Desert Financial Arena implored the Sun Devils to stay strong, at least to get one win out of the weekend.

Up stepped Isabella Costantini.

The fourth-year setter stood, statuesque, at the service. Eventually, she took a deep breath as if she knew what a long run of serves could do for the Sun Devils. Constantini pulled her right arm back like a slingshot and fired the ball over the net.

As the ball traveled toward the Iowa State players, none of them seemed eager to receive Constantini’s, as Kenny Dillingham would say, “ramma dama ham slam” of a serve. Only fourth-year outside hitter Nayeli Ti’a half-heartedly reached out, sending the ball out of play for an ace.

Constantini rattled off eight additional serves in a row, capping off a 9-0 run, giving the Sun Devils(11-3, 2-1 Big 12) a commanding fourth-set lead. ASU rode out that lead and defeated Iowa State (9-6, 3-1 Big 12) in four sets, avenging ASU’s only conference loss from 2025.

“I love playing here, and it was awesome to see how many fans showed up, over 3900,” head coach JJ Van Niel said. “We really feed off that energy. I talked to the team before the match about how we really got to attack from the service line and just smother them on defense, and I thought we did a really nice job.”

Constantini finished the match with two service aces, but her serving performance goes well beyond the numbers. Almost every time the Brazilian national went back to serve for the Sun Devils, she put the Cyclones under pressure, making it easier for her teammates to set up a block.

The Sun Devils picked up 10 blocks on Sunday, an improvement after their struggles in losses. In the defeat to West Virginia last weekend, ASU only made five blocks, in part due to a lack of danger on attacking serves.

“I think we’ve been trying to work on serving,” Constantini said. “Being aggressive and serving, going back to the service line and keeping pressure. It felt great. I don’t even know how to describe the feeling. I had the ball in my hands, and I know I have control over it, so it was good. I think we did a really good job defensively, so shout out to the rest of the team. Going on runs is like what keeps us going, and that’s what we always try to do.”

Throughout the season, Van Niel has stressed that the Sun Devils needed more than just third-year libero Piper Rama, their leader in serves with 25, to maximize their damage from the service line.

Seemingly, Constantini has become one of those options.

“Isa has been a good server for us all year,” Van Niel said. “It’s one of the reasons we recruited her. We kind of saw that in film, and the press she could get on. So even when Isa wasn’t playing and [Elle Mottola] was, Isa would still go serve for Noemie, so she is absolutely someone that we think can go back there and point score.”

So far this season, ASU ranks third in the Big 12 with 1.67 aces per set, despite riding a wave of inconsistencies for much of its early campaign. The Sun Devils have dipped into double-digit serve numbers just twice in 2026, and will hope that Constantini, Rama and even third-year outside hitter Una Vajagic can help establish a more dominant serve attack.

“I think we have the ability,” Van Niel said. “We just need to be a little more consistent, kind of be able to sustain the tough serving. We have some really nice serving, and I always tell the team that your first attack is your serving. That’s an attack. It’s not just getting the ball in. I think that passing is really going to be key for us if we can get that just slightly more consistent.”

While the Sun Devils are still looking to improve on the attacking side of the service line, their fluctuating defensive form proved in more dire straights.

With the Sun Devils leading the match 2-0, and the third-set score sitting at 15-13 in their favor, Mesaiya Bettis served up the ball for Iowa State. As the ball traveled, it flew straight to the grasping hands of fifth-year outside hitter Aniya Clinton.

As Clinton bumped the ball, all of her teammates moved out of the way, seemingly a miscommunication.

Rather than recovering the ball, it flew out of play, allowing Iowa State to win a point and eventually the set. Though the Sun Devils were consistently receiving cleanly for much of the game, the third set served as a reminder that there is still a weakness that opponents can exploit.

ASU has lost a set in seven of its last eight matches, with an inability to receive serves being a focal point of those struggles.

“The third set, our offense, we let down a little bit in passing,” Van Niel said. “I’ve talked about plenty of things this year about the serve and the pass game. I didn’t think we were getting them in as much trouble.”

“They were in system a lot, and any team that’s in system is hard to defend. So there was a combination of our passing breaking down a little bit, and then our serving was not quite as tough. And you know, but it was nice to see the reset, and that force that we reset really well, and we put a lot of pressure on them.”

The Sun Devils will certainly be looking to build upon their success and clean up their errors around the service line–though Van Niel’s squad will be glad they were able to do so in a victory, rather than the lessons they learned against West Virginia last weekend.

“I’d like to see it a little more sustained throughout,” Van Niel said. “But for the most part, we knocked them off the net pretty well today, and then we got a good block that can take care of it.”