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ASU Stuns No. 2 Texas 3-1
Texas hit .065 in its own season opener and lost in four. Arizona State's setter was a freshman playing the first match of her college career, and she left with the MVP award.
Arizona State opened its season on Saturday night by beating the No. 2 team in the country, and it was not especially close. The Sun Devils took Texas in four sets at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
The final was 25-17, 25-17, 19-25, 25-18. Texas hit .065 for the night, a number that belongs to a team on the ninth set of a long weekend rather than the first four of a season.
Elle Mottola, a freshman playing the first match of her college career, was named the match MVP.
A Freshman Setter Ran the Upset
Mottola finished with 31 assists, seven digs, four blocks and four kills. The Sun Devils served five aces around her, two more than Texas managed all night.
Noemie Glover did the heavy work on the pin. The returning Big 12 Player of the Year put down 13 kills with 10 digs and seven blocks, her 22nd straight match in double figures dating to last season.
Una Vajagic added 12 kills and Maeva Schalk 10, so the Sun Devils got double figures from three different attackers in a match where almost nobody could score cleanly.
Nobody Hit Well, and Texas Hit Worse
Texas put up 38 kills with 14 blocks and three aces, and three Longhorns tied for the team lead on nine kills apiece. Nya Bunton added a team-high eight blocks and Ramsey Gary dug 14 balls.
Arizona State put up 43 kills with 13 blocks and five aces, and its three-headed pin group went 13, 12 and 10. Ella Lomigora added eight blocks and Faith Frame dug 15.
Neither side hit .130. What separated them was the floor, where the Sun Devils dug 57 balls to Texas's 40 and stayed in rallies long enough for the Longhorns to make the error.
The one set Texas won, it won by six. The Longhorns built a 14-8 lead in the third and held it, and for twenty minutes the match looked like the one everyone had planned to watch.
Van Niel Keeps Doing This
The Sun Devils then led 5-2 in the fourth and 15-6 by the media timeout. Texas got it back to 21-15 and the match ended on a service error.
JJ Van Niel is 4-0 in season openers at Arizona State, and the program has now opened with a win in 16 consecutive seasons.
It is also the second time in two years one of his teams has beaten a No. 2, after Penn State in 2025. His record against top-five opponents is 4-3.
Asked afterwards what had worked, Van Niel went to the same two things twice.
I thought our blocking did a really nice job, which was cool to see. Obviously, Noemie, returning Big 12 Player of the Year for us, we know we can get points when she's out there.
Texas came in ranked second in the coaches' poll, one spot behind Nebraska. It leaves Milwaukee 0-1 and plays Marquette on Monday night in the same arena. The .065 is the first line on its 2026 season.
