Arizona State Volleyball Schedule 2026

2026 Season Outlook

Arizona State is no longer a team hoping to break through. The Sun Devils have won back-to-back Big 12 titles, went 28-4 with a 17-1 conference record in 2025, and were voted preseason No. 1 in the Big 12 - the first time they have topped the league poll in three seasons as a member. Nationally they open at No. 12, the highest-ranked Big 12 program. They made a statement immediately, beating No. 2 Texas 3-1 in the season opener at the Jeep AVCA First Serve in Milwaukee, against a Longhorns team that had swept them a year earlier and led the all-time series 8-2.

Senior Noemie Glover headlines the roster as the reigning Big 12 Player of the Year, an AVCA First Team All-American and the conference's Preseason Player of the Year. Around her, ASU added graduate Aniya Clinton from Kansas State and junior Una Vajagic, a starter on Wisconsin's national-semifinal team, both named preseason All-Big 12. Junior libero Faith Frame returns after All-Big 12 Second Team honors. The roster turned over hard: two All-Americans and three other starters graduated, and head coach JJ Van Niel returned 10 players while adding 10 more.

But ASU handled the same problem last year, winning the league outright with an entirely new starting lineup. The number that matters most: Van Niel is 36-1 in regular-season matches at Desert Financial Arena.

Program History & Tradition

Arizona State joined the Big 12 from the Pac-12 in 2024 and won the conference championship in each of its first two seasons, in 2024 and again in 2025 at 17-1. The 2025 team went 28-4, the second-best winning percentage in program history, hosted the NCAA Tournament first and second rounds at Desert Financial Arena and won both matches at home before reaching the NCAA Regional Semifinal - the second time in three seasons and the fourth overall. The Sun Devils have reached that round in 2023 and 2025, and the rivalry with Arizona carried over intact from the Pac-12 when both schools changed conferences.

Head Coach Spotlight

JJ Van Niel arrived in Tempe after eight seasons as an assistant at USC and Utah, inheriting a program picked 11th in its conference that had lost its roster to the transfer portal. He has since won back-to-back Big 12 championships and is 36-1 in regular-season matches at Desert Financial Arena, a home record that ranks among the best in the country over that span. He is a two-time Kush Award winner. Preslie Anderson is associate head coach and Carley Bock directs operations; both are Hamilton High School alumnae, which is why ASU held its free August 14 open practice at Hamilton in Chandler.

What to Watch in 2026

Iowa State visits Desert Financial Arena on October 4 in a rare linear-ESPN window for Big 12 volleyball, and preseason No. 18 TCU follows on October 11 on ESPN2. The Duel in the Desert against Arizona runs twice - October 15 in Tempe and November 15 at McKale Center in Tucson. The hardest road date is October 24 at preseason No. 24 BYU in Smith Fieldhouse, one of the toughest environments in the country. The home finale on November 27 against preseason No. 15 Kansas, the Big 12's second-highest-ranked team, may decide the conference race.

Note that Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, so listed MST times match Pacific time through early November.

Arizona State Volleyball 2026 Schedule Overview

Schedule and scores checked October 12, 2026 · Official source: thesundevils.com

The 2026 Arizona State volleyball schedule runs 29 matches - 11 non-conference and 18 in the Big 12 - from the season opener against No. 2 Texas in Milwaukee on August 22 to the home finale against Kansas on November 27. Twelve are at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe. The Sun Devils enter as back-to-back Big 12 champions, ranked No. 12 nationally and picked first in the conference, the highest-ranked Big 12 program in the AVCA preseason poll. Six neutral-site matches are spread across Milwaukee, Sioux Falls, Hamilton in New York and San Luis Obispo, an unusually high number that matters for NCAA seeding.

Big 12 play opens on the road at West Virginia on September 25 and Cincinnati on September 27, with the conference home opener against Iowa State on October 4. ASU plays home-and-homes against Arizona, Utah, TCU and Kansas. The Big 12 placed six teams in the AVCA preseason top 25 and sent 10 to the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the most of any conference. One scheduling note that trips up most visitors: Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, so times listed in MST match Pacific time through early November and run an hour behind Mountain Daylight Time in states like Colorado and Utah.

A free open practice was held August 14 at Hamilton High School in Chandler; it does not count toward the record. Full dates, times, TV assignments and results are below.