ASU women's volleyball starts 13-0 in its 50th anniversary season

Dominance and legacy are defining Arizona State women's volleyball this year.

The Sun Devils are shining bright with an undefeated 13-0 record in the program's 50th anniversary season, a major turnaround from the past seven straight losing seasons.

“It’s kind of symbolic that this is the 50-year anniversary," senior outside hitter Marta Levinska said. "We’ve had a really great start and just keep it going. Coach says to us, ‘Every point is a championship point.’ So I want to look back and say I did everything I could.”

ASU nipped at this week's NCAA's Division I Top 25 as it received the most votes (52) among 15 teams that didn't make the poll. ASU might be the Pac-12's fourth team in the poll (Stanford, Oregon, and Washington State are Nos. 4, 6, and 7, respectively) next week after it's dropped just three sets thus far and swept their last 10 opponents.

The latter includes beating rival Arizona in both team's conference play opener and ASU's first home game at Mullett Arena on Thursday.

“I feel empowered by it. It helps us feel like we are worth something to ASU because in past years women’s sports haven’t been the most hyped-up thing," junior libero Geli Cyr said about the anniversary. "Sometimes we can get overshadowed by hockey and football, but people really enjoy watching us play. ... It’s so much better to play in front of a crowd that’s loud than it is in a quiet gym. It’s very nice to come home on Thursday and have people cheering for us and not against us.”

The early success is menial to first-year coach JJ Van Niel because it's just getting started. He was hired in December to replace Sanja Tomasevic, after being USC's associate head coach for the past five years.

The team's goals for this season were to win all three preseason tournaments (The FCGU, Borderland, and Lumberjack invitationals) and return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2015.

"We played well, but was preseason and it’s done. Now the real season starts," Van Neil said before Thursday's game. "To me, it’s a complete reset. Now, we gotta go into the Pac-12 and see what we can do there."

The team's G.R.I.T. mantra (grace, relentless, integrity, trust) created during its bonding trip with Van Neil this spring keeps him and his players grounded. His first method to establish the team's winning culture was spending time on and off the court with his players, which includes nine returnees.

“It was one of the better springs that I’ve been through. I love this team," Van Neil said. "Forget the record. I love being around the transfers and the freshmen that have come in, just melded really nicely with the culture.”

Arizona State's adjustments toward success, Title IX impact

Van Neil determined that serving and passing needed to be the biggest changes for ASU. His statistical analysis of what each team member needs to improve based on past in-game performances in Pac-12 competition helped them build their trust in him.

"Our serve receive has been way better this year than it has in past years, and that has really helped us," Levinska said. "We were last in the Pac-12 last year for serving. We spend half of our practices just working on serving and honing in on that. ... You can tell he cares so much, and I think that our team really wants to win for not only him but the rest of the staff.”

This is happening in perfect tandem with the program's 50th anniversary celebration this weekend.

When ASU hosts Washington on Saturday, there will be a reunion with past coaches, players and staff members reminiscing about how far the program has come since it was founded one year after Title IX revolutionized women's sports in 1972.

“I think it’s easy to forget, especially in this day and age with social media and news cycles, like after a day everything is gone. It’s a good reminder that this is 50 years,” Van Neil said. “I like it when players get to connect with the past because those are really powerful moments and those are good connections."

Mary Littlewood was the program’s first coach in its inaugural year. She doubled as the ASU softball coach, which was a powerhouse that won two consecutive national titles that year and the previous season.

ASU volleyball opened its first season perfectly at 21-0 and won an AIAW Championship (the former women’s national collegiate association) in 1973. Littlewood's winning percentage (.725) is the highest among the nine head coaches in program history. ASU has 18 NCAA Tournament appearances.

Patti Snyder-Park was the program’s longest-tenured coach for 14 seasons, and had a 216-181 record until she retired in 2002. She led ASU to the Sweet 16 twice in 1994 and 1995, the team’s farthest in the tournament.

Van Neil said that Snyder-Park was one of the first people who reached out to him when he was hired, resembling a passing down of the Sun Devil pitchfork.

End of an era: From 'Jael Mary' to classic overtimes, top games in ASU-USC football history

Snyder-Park has plenty of stories examining Title IX's impact on ASU women's volleyball and the sport's growth.

She recalls driving her players and staff in minivans and a car to conference road games in her first season at ASU. That's compared to now in which the university provides larger budgets for traveling in planes, charter buses, nice hotels, recruiting, and resources to maintain the team's high grade point average and overall school experience.

Snyder-Park also used the example of the world record-setting 92,000 sellout crowd at Nebraska's home match against Omaha on Aug. 30.

"It’s nice to not have to grind it out in the worst of ways," Snyder-Park said. "That’s the best part, funding these student-athletes who are really spending a lot of time in the gym for the university and for their sport but they also have to carry a big, fat load. …

I was the product of Title IX as a collegiate athlete. I’m the ninth of 12 kids, first one in my family to go to (college) because of Title IX and scholarship availability."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State women's volleyball starts 13-0 in 50th anniversary season