(Tempe, AZ) The 2024 season was another historic year for Sun Devil Volleyball as the team won the first conference championship in program history and advanced in the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight season.
Team Accomplishments
The 2024 Big 12 Champions, Arizona State finished the season with a 30-3 record, going 17-1 in Big 12 play. The Sun Devils, who earned a No. 3 seed and hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, advanced to the second round, the second-straight year doing so. ASU hosted tournament matches for the first time since 1995. The conference title was the first Big 12 title across all sports for ASU and the first conference championship in program history. In volleyball, Arizona State is one of four teams in the conference to have won a Big 12 title (also Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State).
The 30 wins on the year are the most this century and one from the most all-time (31 in 1982). The winning percentage of .909 is the best in team history. Additionally, ASU had 20 sweeps this year, tied with the program record. The Sun Devils went undefeated at home in the regular season for the first time since becoming an NCAA sport. Before falling in the final match, Arizona State had an 18-match winning streak, the second-longest in program history.
The Sun Devils built up an impressive resume over the season. In addition to their monumental win total, they went 5-2 against ranked opponents, including a top-10 win over then-No. 8 Kansas. Arizona State never lost a match to an unranked team during the regular season. The .909 win percentage this season is the best in program history.
Not only did ASU win, but it won with efficiency, hitting .272 on the year, top 20 in the nation for hitting percentage. There were five individual efforts ranked in the top 10 in the ASU record book for hitting percentages and two matches in the top 10 (.476 vs Cal Baptist is second best, .458 vs. Memphis is the fifth best). The Sun Devils have also held opponents to low clips, ranking in the top 20 all season for opponent hitting percentages (currently at .161).
Home matches were must-see events in Tempe this season. Split between Desert Financial Arena and Mullett Arena, 10 of the 15 home matches had over 3,000 in attendance, with six over 4,000. All six of those 4,000-plus attended matches are ranked in the top 10 for highest-attended matches since 2013. The highest was 4,630 against Arizona on October 9. ASU set program records for total attendance (50,685) and average attendance (3,379). The total attendance was No. 14 in the NCAA and the average attendance was ranked No. 15 in the nation.
Awards and Honors
With winning comes awards and the Sun Devils bought in many honors in 2024. There were four AVCA All-Americans, four AVCA All-Region players, two major coaching honors, five Big 12 honorees, and five Big 12 Player of the Week nods.
Four from Sun Devil Volleyball garnered AVCA All-America honors, with graduate setter Argentina Ungearning a spot on the third team and graduates Geli Cyr, Claire Jeter and Mary Shroll earning honorable mentions. All four of them were also AVCA All-Region honorees. In Arizona State history, there are now 13 to have collected All-America honors. Four is the most All-Americans in a single season in program history for ASU.
Jeter, who is on the honorable mention list for the second-straight year, is the second Sun Devil to earn multiple nods while at ASU (also Tammy Webb in 1985-86). For Ung, this is her second All-America nod after earning honorable mention last season with Washington State. For Cyr and Shroll, this is their first All-America honor. Shroll is the first libero in program history to be named an All-American.
Arizona State is one of six teams in the nation to have four or more All-Americans. ASU’s total of four is tied for the second most, just behind one from Creighton and tied with Louisville, Nebraska, Penn State and Pitt. The Sun Devils were the most well-represented in the Big 12 on the All-America list.
JJ Van Niel picked up two major awards after leading the team to another monumental season. He was the Big 12 Coach of the Year and the AVCA Pacific Region Coach of the Year. These were his second-straight conference coach of the year and region of the year nods. Van Niel is the second head coach in program history to win two conference coach of the year honors, along with Patti Snyder (1992, 1990), but he is the only coach to win in consecutive years. He was the first head coach in program history to win AVCA Region Coach of the Year last season and added to his accolades this year with a second-straight honor.
For the Big 12 awards, Ung was the Big 12 Setter of the Year and Shroll was the Big 12 Libero of the Year, which were the first major conference awards won by a Sun Devil in team history. On the All-Big 12 First Team were Cyr, Jeter, Shroll and Ung, while graduate Savannah Kjolhede was on the second team.
For the second year in a row, the Sun Devils won five conference weekly awards. Shroll was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week three times, an award Jeter also won once. Cyr was the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week once.
Individual Success
Senior outside hitter Geli Cyr led the team in kills with 373 to wrap up her career with her most productive single-season output. She notched double-digit kills in all but nine matches. She also had 10 double-doubles. In career kills, she had 1,061, which is the 18th-most all-time at Arizona State.
Alongside Cyr, graduate Shania Cromartie was one of the two primary outside hitters, totaling 288 kills on the year (second on the team behind Cyr). Strong on defense as well, she had 238 digs, one of four over 200 digs.
Graduate middle blocker Claire Jeter wrapped up her fourth and final season in Tempe on a high note. Her efficiency was off the charts, hitting. 426 for the best clip in a single season in ASU history. All season, she was ranked in the top 10 for hitting percentage. She earned 262 kills (third on the team) and 106 blocks (second on the team). She totaled 379 block assists while at ASU, which is first in the Arizona State record book.
The other middle blocker this season was graduate Savannah Kjolhede. In her first and only season at ASU, she led the team in total blocks with 117. She also had 205 kills on the year. Her hitting percentage of .357 was second on the team. She had one of the matches in the top 10 in ASU history for hitting percentage with .800 against Utah on October 2 in Tempe.
On defense, graduate libero Mary Shroll led the charge all year. She finished the year with 522 digs and had double-digit digs in all but two matches all season. She also had seven matches with more than 20 digs, including a season high of 32 against Arizona at home. Her season dig total is the most by a Sun Devil since 2019.
Pacing the offense all season was graduate setter Argentina Ung, who was a grad transfer for Arizona State. Ung made an impact, helping ASU hit .272 on the year, top 20 in the nation for hitting percentage. Ung dished out 1,131 assists and surpassed 3,000 career assists this season. A force on defense as well, she has 14 double-doubles and was second on the team in digs with 291.
The serve continued to be a crucial factor for the Sun Devils this season. There were six with 20 or more aces, led by sophomore Jillian Neal’s 36, the only one over 30. The others over 20 were Brynn Covell, Cyr, Jeter, Shroll and Ung.
Key contributions have come from all across the roster. The third pin hitter has been split throughout the season, with graduate Roberta Rabelo most recently making a strong impact on the right side in the back half of the conference slate, one of the seven on the roster with 100-plus kills, tallying 132. Junior Bailey Miller also made an impact on the right side, totaling 147 kills through the season. Additionally, redshirt freshman Covell has made a spot for herself as a defensive specialist, one of five Sun Devils with over 100 digs on the year, ending with 190.
Next Season
Arizona State loses the majority of its typical rotation, with six graduates and one senior wrapping up their college careers: Cromartie, Cyr, Jeter, Kjolhede, Rabelo, Shroll and Ung. ASU will return five that played in more than 10 matches, two who played in more than 30 matches. However, the Sun Devils have signed incoming freshmen Ella Lewis and Ceci Vance. Three transfers have been added as well: senior setter Sydney Henry, junior middle blocker Ella Lomigora and sophomore middle blocker Zoey Burgess.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Kimberlie Haner
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