ASU beach volleyball’s experience fuels high ranking

TEMPE – The Arizona State beach volleyball team has already accomplished a pair of unprecedented feats this season. The Sun Devils’ 6-0 start includes four wins over ranked teams – No. 5 TCU, No. 13 Grand Canyon, No. 19 Georgia State and No. 20 Arizona – the first time ASU has accomplished that feat in its first six matches. 

The early season success has also helped the Sun Devils achieve the highest ranking in program history, coming in at No. 8 in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll.

“We’re above a lot of teams we’ve never been ranked above before,” redshirt senior Ava Kirunchyk said. “We should have the confidence based on what the polls see in us, and how we’ve been playing.”

There is another element driving ASU’s early success: experience.

Kirunchyk is one of eight seniors on the roster, and provides a different type of experience, having played her first two seasons with the 2022 and 2023 NCAA champion USC Trojans.

“I was really blessed to have won with them,” she said. “They taught me how to lead, and how to talk to people, and how to just outwork everyone, and that if you do the work, you don’t always need to talk to be a leader, but rather, by the way you’re playing, the way you’re showing up to conditioning, lift and all the extracurriculars, too, is just as important.”.

ASU’s experience even extends to its coach. Kristen Glattfelder is in her third year at Arizona State, after spending eight years at Grand Canyon University. Her tenure at GCU was successful, including receiving the AVCA’s Collegiate Beach Coach of the Year award in 2022 after leading the Lopes to their first-ever NCAA championship appearance.

“I’ve learned a lot,” Glattfelder said. “I feel like I don’t stop learning from year to year.” 

In her three years at Arizona State, Glattfelder has taken the program to new heights, including a 49-24 record and the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2024. ASU is aiming even higher.

In its early matches, the Sun Devils have been dominant, only dropping one dual match in six outings. Glattfelder sees the experience of her team paying dividends, not the least of which is the confidence already instilled in the players. 

“Now that they have that experience, they have years under their belt, we have a lot of seniors that have been through it for a couple years,” Glattfelder said. “So just them having that confidence … I think it puts them at ease a little bit to just come out and work hard, and not just on the court, but in the classroom, and conditioning and weights.” 

Confidence played a huge role for senior Kendall Whitmarsh and junior Olivia McElroy, who took home Big 12 Pair of the Week honors on Feb. 24. 

McElroy and Whitmarsh, who played at the No. 5 spot in the relevant matches, clinched ranked wins against No. 5 TCU and No. 13 Grand Canyon. 

Against defending national and Big 12 champion TCU, McElroy and Whitmarsh won a three-set match to clinch the dual. The win over No. 5 TCU is the second top-five win in program history. In the win against No. 13 GCU, they swept their court to clinch the dual as well. Their wins over UC Davis and Colorado Mesa also came in straight sets. 

“I think we both just had a lot of confidence in all the time and preparation we put in the fall, and in the past month, going into the season. So we were able to just come out really strong and be confident in ourselves and each other,” McElroy said.

Even with the hot start – along with the accolades and records that came with it – the Sun Devils are still hungry for more. 

“We are just going to stay humble and hungry, and just really lean on each other, believe in each other, and follow our team motto right now, which is just belief,” Whitmarsh said.

Glattfelder echoed the sentiment that the group is staying locked in, “taking it one day at a time and not looking too far ahead.” 

Next up for ASU is the Sun Devil Classic, where it will play four matches in two days on Friday and Saturday, including a rematch against No. 19 Arizona after the Sun Devils defeated them 5-0 on Feb. 27.

“We’re super excited to be hosting our first spring event here this weekend,” Glattfelder said. “I think there’s a lot of excitement around that and wanting to get people in Tempe excited about our sport and our program.”

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