Arizona State, “fishing in the right pond,” ready to turn the table on 5-setters

Say this about Arizona State the last couple of seasons.

The Sun Devils got plenty of volleyball bang for their bucks.

In the spring 2021 season, ASU finished 6-14, all in the Pac-12, and went five sets eight times. The Sun Devils went 3-5 in those matches.

Last fall, ASU went 14-17, including 7-13 in the Pac-12, and went five 11 times. The eventual five-set record was 3-8, and that included a 25-15, 24-26, 25-17, 24-26, 15-11 early-season loss to eventual national semifinalist Louisville; to then-No. 13 Oregon; to then-No. 11 Washington; and to then-No. 21 Washington State.

It was suggested to Coach Sanja Tomasevic that her team seemed to be riding a roller-coaster last fall.

“In the spring of 2021 and the fall of 2021, we played 19 matches that went five sets,” Tomasevic said with a smile. “We lost 13 of those. So when you say roller-coaster, I’d say that’s accurate. But I’d say that we got our money’s worth for the young team that we had. We learned a lot. Talent is not an issue.”

Tomasevic, a Serbian who won an NCAA title as a player at Washington in 2005 and then played professionally in Greece and Italy, enters her sixth season at Arizona State. 

Her record in her first head-coaching job is 61-85, and year in and year out, ASU has been a tough opponent and seemingly so close to breaking through. The program, which has been 19 times, has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2015.

That was also the last year for coach Jason Watson, who had a four-year NCAA run at the school before leaving for Arkansas. The star of that team, Macey Gardner (now Donathan) is his assistant at Arkansas.

Stevie Mussie had the job for one season in 2016 when the Sun Devils went 12-20, 5-15.

Tomasevic was an assistant coach at UTSA and then at Miami for Keno Gandara, who was an assistant at Washington during her time there. Their head coach was Jim McLaughlin, a huge influence on both.

When Tomasevic got the Arizona State job, the cupboard was hardly full.

“I wish I hadn’t give away all nine scholarships like I did the first year I was coach. But we didn’t have bodies in the gym. I had six players in the gym, and three of them were walk-ons. So we offered scholarships to anyone who wanted to come in,” she said and laughed.

“There were some really good kids. We got lucky with some of them, but there were some that hurt us in the long run. And you don’t get rid of them because it’s not a good fit, but they’re there and sometimes not a good culture fit. So it took awhile to clean that up. Last fall was the first time I felt like we had a chance to build this up.”

She said it was quite sobering, especially what she heard from her bosses.

“My administration will say it, too, I felt like when I got the program handed over to me, they were saying things like you you’re not building us back up, you’re digging us out from six feet underground. Literally, that’s what they told me and I used to get so offended. They said they didn’t expect anything for four or five years and I was like ‘What?’ You don’t say that to a coach. Because I thought I was that good, too, like it would happen faster. But once you’re in it, you realize how little of it you control besides giving scholarships to the right people. And I think we’re finally there.”

Things have changed, she said.

“We are on the phone with the right kids. We’re talking to kids the rest of the Pac-12 is talking to. Fishing in the right pond.”

Once she lands those fish, Tomasevic said she has a better idea how to coach them, too. Being a mom of Stella, who will turn 5 in late October, has helped.

“100 percent,” she said. “Those two, my daughter (Stella) and my program, are growing up at the same time. It’s a really cool analogy.”

Stella, by the way, was named in such a way “that it was easy to say in English and Serbian without twisting your tongue.”

This season, eight of nine starters return — “Which is nice, because the transfer portal is a scary place,” Tomasevic said — and there are four newcomers.

Things start with two pin hitters — Iman Isanovic, an all-Pac-12 preseason pick, and Marta Levinska. 

Isanovic, a 6-foot-1 senior outside from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, led the Sun Devils with 490 kills last season (3.89/set), had a team-high 34 aces, was fourth in digs with 265 and fourth in blocks with 47, 20 of them solo. She’s played for the Bosnian national team.

Levinska is a 6-2 junior left-hander from Riga, Latvia, who plays right side. She was second in kills with 359 (2.85/set), right behind Isanovic with 31 aces, third in digs with 265 and second in blocks with 60.

ASU has another veteran in 6-3 junior Claire Jeter, who is from Missouri City, Texas, and transferred from Texas A&M. She was third in kills for ASU last season with 261 (2.12/set) and a team-high — by far — 115 blocks, 20 solo. 

“She was a huge get,” Tomasevic said.

The setter is 6-foot Ella Snyder, a junior from Manhattan Beach who averaged 8.50 assists, had 21 aces and was second only to libero Annkia Larson-Nummer in digs with 268. Snyder’s mother played volleyball at Loyola Marymount, her sister played at Maryland and her twin brother, Luke, plays at Penn State.

Larson-Nummer, a 5-4 senior from Windsor, Colorado, averaged 3.49 digs, added almost an assist per set and had 14 aces. Her husband, Josh Nummer, is on the ASU wrestling team.

Last year, ASU got a big boost from Jayme Cox, a DS/libero who transferred as a grad student from Michigan State. Tomasevic said that Cox was a great influence on the program in her only season in Tempe.

Tomasevic is excited about the full-season potential of Geli Cyr, a 5-10 sophomore outside from Flower Mound, Texas. She was coming off shoulder surgery after her last high-school season and finally got into the mix in October. Cyr, who has good ball control and a strong arm, was a key to ASU’s five-match, mid-October winning streak, Tomasevic said. In that run, the Sun Devils beat then-No. 14 UCLA, then-No. 18 Utah and then-No. 15 Stanford. But they then lost their next five matches to end the season, and none went five sets.

“Yes, it was up and down, but it was a really good learning experience,” Tomasevic said.

Cyr, who played in 21 matches, averaged 1.99 kills and 1.88 digs and had 20 blocks.

Arizona State was picked eighth in the preseason Pac-12 coaches poll. The Sun Devils will open at home next weekend against CSU Bakersfield, Northern Iowa and Toledo. The second weekend, they’ll go to Georgia Tech and play Dayton, FIU and the home team, before heading to Waco to play Evansville, Colorado State and Baylor. In the last weekend before Pac-12 play, they’ll go to Texas Tech and face SMU, Texas Tech and Oral Roberts.

Lee Feinswog

Lee Feinswog is the publisher and editor of VolleyballMag.com
Contact him at Lee@VolleyballMag.com