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Texas Owns ASU 6-1
Arizona State went 28-4 and won a second straight Big 12 title last season. It opens at 6 p.m. Central on FS1 against the one team it has beaten once in seven tries.
Arizona State went 28-4 last season, won a second straight Big 12 title and reached an NCAA regional semifinal. It was the second-best win percentage in program history.
The Sun Devils are 1-6 all-time against Texas.
They meet again tonight at 6 p.m. Central on FS1 at Fiserv Forum. Everything else on the national board Saturday is an exhibition, so this and the 3 p.m. Wisconsin-Louisville match are the whole ranked slate.
The Last Meeting Was Closer Than 3-0
Texas swept Arizona State at Gregory Gym on Sept. 14 last year, 25-18, 30-28, 25-15, and the middle set is the one worth remembering. The Sun Devils pushed it to 30.
Texas hit .382 that afternoon and Arizona State hit .227, but ASU out-blocked the Longhorns nine to seven. Cari Spears, then a freshman, put down a career-high 18 kills with four blocks of her own.
Spears is a sophomore now, an AVCA Third-Team All-American, and she is the second-best hitter on her own team.
ASU Has to Solve Torrey Stafford
Stafford had 516 kills, 33 aces and 580.5 points last season and was named an AVCA First-Team All-American and Southwest Region Player of the Year. She is most of the reason Texas went into the NCAA tournament as a No. 1 seed.
Behind her the Longhorns have two freshmen who spent the summer winning a U21 Pan American Cup gold medal. Outside hitter Henley Anderson scored nine points in the gold-medal game, and setter Genevieve Harris ran the U.S. offense.
Ramsey Gary arrives from Indiana to take over at libero.
Arizona State counters with Noemie Glover, the 2025 Big 12 Player of the Year and an AVCA First-Team All-American, alongside preseason All-Big 12 picks Aniya Clinton and Una Vajagic.
Faith Frame, Ella Lomigora and Kiylah Presley all return as starters, which should worry Texas more than any of the newcomers do. This is not a rebuilt team walking into a top-two opponent.
JJ Van Niel is 86-14 in three seasons in Tempe. Ten of his players are back and ten are new.
Texas has not played a match in the 12 days since the poll came out, which is the only real unknown here.
Take Texas, and take Arizona State to make it uncomfortable for a set. Van Niel has built the best team the Sun Devils have had, and it still has to beat a program it has beaten once.
