Sports360AZ
By Jeff Metcalfe
Arizona State volleyball began this season prepared to celebrate its past with a 50-year anniversary and future with first-year coach JJ Van Niel.
What, though, of the present after six losing seasons in the preceding seven and no postseason appearance since 2015.
The current Sun Devils made sure they were a part of the party by putting together a season in contention for the greatest in school history.
ASU is 26-6 going into NCAA Tournament play Friday vs. Georgia in Provo, Utah. That’s a record pace .812 winning percentage, above .794 in 1986 (27-7 record) and .741 in 1992 (23-8). The school high for wins is 31 in 1982 when scheduling allowed for weekend three-set matches (ASU played 18 of those).
If the Sun Devils win at least twice in the postseason, reaching the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time in a 64-team field, their credentials for best ever will be largely indisputable.
“It’s stellar and unbelievable and not accidental,” says Patti Snyder-Park, ASU coach from 1994-2002. “They are consistently good in the basics. They are tough serving, great passing. They execute at such a high level that they have to win rallies. What he (Van Niel) has done is maximize every drop of talent from what he inherited. I love watching them play.”
Van Niel, on USC’s staff from 2018-22, made the most of his first year as a college head coach with one of the greatest debuts in ASU history. Clint Myers (2006 softball) and Tim Esmay (2010 baseball) took their teams to College World Series appearances in their first seasons but from stronger starting positions than Van Niel, given half of the 2022 roster left (most transferring) before he was hired.
For ASU to double its 2022 win total (13) was beyond what even Van Niel imagined possible during spring practice. How it happened is a story that will be told for the program’s next 50 years.
Geli Cyr enters portal then stays put
ASU didn’t make a volleyball coaching change until almost two weeks after the end of the 2022 regular season, announcing a mutual parting with Sanja Tomasevic (74-104 in six seasons) on Dec. 9.
By then, the transfer floodgate was open and ASU starting a coaching search while other schools feasted on the best in the portal.
Eight players transferred out and almost a ninth. Outside hitter Geli Cyr entered the portal then withdrew before a new coach was hired.
“I kind of wanted something different,” Cyr said. “It was a lot about culture. It was not nearly the same as how it is now, and culture is a big thing for me. Also Andi (Kreiling, now at UC Santa Barbara) was my best friend. When she decided that she was leaving, I was like maybe I should go too and see what my chances are.”
Discovering that many of her online classes would not transfer, Cyr asked if she could return, a request approved by interim coach Carlos Moreno before he left to become San Diego associate head coach.
After Van Niel’s hiring was announced Dec. 29, Cyr reached out to fellow Texan Tyrah Ariail, a middle blocker at USC.
“She had nothing but praise to say about him,” Cyr said. “I was terrified at the time that I would never find a place to go, and I’m so extremely happy to end up back at ASU.”
Including Cyr, Van Niel had nine players available in spring, not enough for 6-on-6 practice without the help of men’s volunteers. For what Van Niel wanted to accomplish building a foundation, a committed nine proved to be the magic number.
Relationships ahead of volleyball in Spring
Before USC, Van Niel was on the Utah staff from 2015-17, overlapping with setter Shannon Shields’ first three seasons at Phoenix Xavier Prep.
Their paths crossed during a recruiting visit with a twist that both remember.
“He was coming off the slopes, all in his gear,” Shields said.
“I actually came to ASU to watch Shannon’s club practice,” Van Niel said. “There was a big (club) tournament at Utah. I snowboarded that morning and must have been a little late. So I rolled in and had all my gear on. I took her team around. I was excited.”
Years later, after Shields transferred to ASU following one season at Louisville, she and Van Niel united in her fifth college season for success that neither could have imagined that snowy day in Salt Lake City.
Shields, hitters Cyr, Marta Levinska and Roberta Rabelo and middle blockers Claire Jeter and Maddie McLaughlin were among the returning nine, trusting in each other and that something positive could come from a coaching change.
All play central roles along with libero Mary Shroll, a grad transfer from Loyola Marymount who returned to her hometown Tempe after the spring.
#ASU libero Mary Shroll on returning to her hometown Tempe this season pic.twitter.com/szN0CWErtS
— jeffmetcalfe (@jeffmetcalfe) November 29, 2023
“I didn’t want to throw away all of this time I’ve spent here with this program,” Levinska says. “When you believe you’re in the right place then everything else is going to work out.”
ASU senior associate athletic director Christina Wombacher says player feedback was valued during the hiring process. “Their commitment never wavered. They love ASU and trusted administration to get the right person to lead the program to new heights. The unknown was nerve wracking but trusted our leadership to put them in the right position to be successful.”
For Van Niel, who worked in finance until taking the full-time coaching plunge in 2011, the biggest challenge starting out was tempering his analytical side in favor of a holistic people-building approach that had little to do with volleyball specifics.
“Believe me, I had all of the numbers, but I had to resist it,” Van Niel says. “Because if you don’t have the (relational) trust, you really can’t have a good culture. All spring long, we (staff) would grab a kid and go get coffee or play cards or just spend time. The only rule was we’re not talking volleyball.”
There was leadership training and community service and, in the gym, focused work on serving and passing, sub-par areas for the Sun Devils in 2022 where Van Niel believed improvement would equate to more wins. The first fruits came at a spring tournament in Tucson.
“We hadn’t really played against anyone or sixes a lot, but we were winning all these sets,” Shields said. “That moment gave me a sense of who we were going to be. I felt we were the most connected team there, and we trust each other way more than any other team. I was like wow, this is a good indicator for what the season is going to feel like because we were balling out in this little tournament.”
“We worked our butts off (in the spring),” Levinska said. “All of us got so much stronger. We didn’t play that much volleyball. We really worked on our conditioning and connection. We really tried to make this thing work, and somehow it worked out.”
Building off all road non-conference
Because of late scheduling, ASU played all 12 non-conference matches on the road, not only winning them all but dropping only three sets (nine 3-0 sweeps). The season-opening win streak extended to 14, and the No. 18-ranked Sun Devils are up to a school record 18 sweeps including over No. 2 Stanford and No. 6 Oregon.
ASU beat 10 Pac-12 opponents at least once en route to its highest conference win total (14). The only Pac-12 team the Sun Devils failed to defeat was No. 10 Washington State, losing 15-13 in the fifth set in their only meeting Nov. 22 in Pullman.
ASU has not lost consecutive matches.
The road non-conference grind was “really necessary just to get more familiar with everyone (six fall additions) on the team,” Levinska said. “That was a crucial part of it.”
There were a few clunkers – road losses to Oregon State and Colorado – but the Sun Devils avenged those at home. Mostly, they played fast and steady, their pring work paying off with a No. 3 national ranking in aces per set and No. 9 in hitting percentage thanks largely to consistent passing by Shroll and Cyr.
Levinska, top 10 nationally in kills and points, and Shields are a left-handed nightmare for opponents on back sets to the right side. Cyr and Rabelo provide left-side hitting balance. Jeter and McLaughlin, playing a new position, contribute enough blocking and attacking in the middle blocking for Shields to keep defenses guessing with her set distribution.
Shroll was the missing piece in the spring given the graduation loss of libero Annika Larson-Nummer and Van Niel’s priority on improved passing.
“I wanted to have an opportunity to play at another school,” Shroll said. “I wanted to get my master’s and ASU offered a ton on path to do so. It was exciting to come back to my home. I grew up watching ASU and being around campus. It was nice to get away for my undergrad, but coming back and being with my family here has been huge. It was a pretty easy decision, and the staff was so welcoming. I got to meet the girls on my official visit and all nine of them were the sweetest. So I knew it was a really solid core.”
Honors galore going into postseason
The honors rolled in Tuesday for that core and Van Niel, voted by his peers as Pac-12 Coach of the Year becoming just the third first-year winner of that award. Picked to finish 10 th in the Pac-12, the Sun Devils tied for third, their best since tying for second in 1993.
Mostly stoic during matches, Van Niel has more fire than he lets on. “He’s like no one can read me then I say are you mad and he’s says how did you know?” Shields said. “We just know him. He pushed us to do things we’re not comfortable with. I like that in a coach. He never gets angry for you trying different things for success.”
Snyder-Park, two-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year, appreciates Van Niel’s demeanor. “He’s a nerdy intense guy, but he’s self-controlled,” she said. “He’s respectful. I don’t ever see him screaming or yelling, I see him standing up and clapping. He’s as steady as those girls play on the court. It’s a reflection.”
#ASU JJ Van Niel on being voted Pac-12 volleyball Coach of Year pic.twitter.com/o338Zomkv3
— jeffmetcalfe (@jeffmetcalfe) November 28, 2023
Wombacher believed volleyball would progress immediately under Van Niel. “He is an intense person in a hard-working way,” she says. “Anything he puts his mind to, he goes 150-200 percent. He was in a sling during the interview process because he goes so hard at whatever he does, he had injured his shoulder. We knew we were getting a go-getter.”
Levinska is on the All Pac-12 first team with Shields, Cyr, Shroll and Jeter earning honorable mention.
Five conference honorees is three more than any previous ASU team.
The Sun Devils are a No. 5 seed in the 64-team NCAA Tournament but face a tough test in their very first match vs. Georgia (19-11) then potentially against No. 4 seed and sub regional host BYU (24-6).
“Of course you’d rather play at home and playing at BYU sucks to be honest,” Van Niel said. “They do a really good job, they have massive crowds, it’s not an easy place to play. But we go where they send us and we play our game, that’s what we can control.”
“We don’t have a bunch of bigs (Jeter is 6-3, Levinska and McLaughlin 6-2), but we beat Stanford. Our game against Oregon was really good stuff. If we can put that product on the floor, I really believe we can hang with anyone. It’s a matter of being able to sustain that over a long period, not just one match.”
ASU already has sustained success for more than three months, ranked nationally for 10 weeks in a row.
Only Shields and Shroll have been on NCAA Tournament teams, at their former schools, so the opportunity is not lost on anyone in maroon and gold.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Levinska said. “If in the spring you told us we would be ranked and easily go to the tournament, we would be like what? And to do it in the 50th season of Sun Devil volleyball. But the tournament is where it all really matters.”
