Season Starts In Florida This Weekend

TEMPE – Sun Devil Volleyball kicks off the 2023 season, 50th year of the program and first year under head coach JJ Van Niel this weekend at the FGCU Invitational in Fort Myers, Florida, from August 25-27. 

How To Watch and Follow

All matches at the FGCU Invitational will be held at Alico Arena, home of Florida Gulf Coast. Friday’s match against FGCU will be on ESPN+, but the other two matches will not be streamed. Live scoring will be available for all three. 

Sun Devil Outlook

Arizona State (0-0)

• The Sun Devils begin the season this weekend. It is head coach JJ Van Niel‘s first season as a head coach and as a coach at ASU.
• The team returns nine from the 2022 roster, eight have playing experience and six have started in a match. Among the six newcomers, three are freshmen and the other three are transfers (a sophomore, junior and fifth-year senior). 
• These three matches will be the first time Arizona State has played each of the schools in volleyball. 
• ASU is one of three Pac-12 schools to spend the entire non-conference schedule on the road. Oregon and UCLA are the other two.
• Senior opposite Marta Levinska was named to the 2023 Preseason All-Pac-12 Team. She is coming off of her best season yet in 2022. Her efforts earned her a spot on the Pac-12 Honorable Mention list, her second-straight year doing so. She reached 1,000 career kills last season, making her the 19th in program history to do so. Her 412 kills were second on the team, the most she’s notched in a season. 

Opponent Outlook

Florida Gulf Coast (0-0)

• The Eagles are coming off of a stellar season in 2022, going 26-7, winning the ASUN Conference Tournament and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. 
• Last year was just their third appearance in the NCAA Tournament in program history. FGCU took Iowa State to five sets in the first round, coming up short.

St. John’s (0-0)

• In 2022, the Red Storm went 20-14, including a 10-8 mark in the Big East Conference.
• The team competed in the National invitational Volleyball Championship for postseason competition. They won the first match before falling in the second round.
• 2022 record: 20-14 .588 overall 10-8 in Big East play

Ole Miss (0-0)

• The Rebels had an 11-17…