Three Hitters and a Freshman Setter: How Arizona State Toppled Stanford

Stanford led 24-23 in the third set. One more point would push the match to a fourth set, and all the pressure fell on the visitors. I sat in the stands in San Luis Obispo, where empty seats outnumbered spectators enough that the ball bouncing on hardwood rang louder than the crowd, and instead of tracking the ball, I kept my eyes on Arizona State's bench. No one stood up. No one shouted. Elle Mottola, a freshman setter, bowed her head, said a few words to her two pin hitters, and stepped into the rotation. Three rallies later, the Sun Devils closed the set 26-24. Final score: 25-19, 25-21, 26-24 — a sweep over the nation's No. 8 team.

What I carried home from that night was not the scoreline but the way Arizona State won: no single star carrying the load, but three attackers firing at once. In American collegiate women's volleyball, where one elite outside hitter is often enough to decide a match, that distribution is a deliberate tactical choice — and it defeated one of the most storied programs in the student game.

Stanford entered ranked No. 8 nationally. The reputation was intact; the form was not: the Cardinal had lost three of their previous four matches. After this one, they had only a short break before facing Santa Clara and then Cal Poly. Arizona State moved the other way — ranked No. 12, but clearly on the rise. Under head coach JJ Van Niel, the program has racked up 20 ranked wins in four seasons, six of them against top-10 opponents. Last season they set a program record with eight ranked wins. This season, only weeks after the schedule began, they already have four — halfway to an entire season's record.

This is the non-conference phase of the NCAA season, the window teams use to test lineups, build RPI, and bank quality wins for a postseason berth. A win over the No. 8 team sits squarely among the most valuable assets of that phase. The wider landscape matters too: this season has seen plenty of upsets against ranked teams, so much so that Vanderbilt just claimed its first-ever win over a ranked opponent. That parity makes every quality win more precious.

Arizona State's engine runs on three names. Aniya Clinton, a graduate outside hitter, posted 15 kills at a .522 hitting percentage — an elite figure. Noemie Glover leads the team with 126 kills on the season. Una Vajagic, who transferred from Wisconsin over the summer, has 124 kills and on this night added double-digit digs and a service ace. Three players, three threats in three different zones of the net. The opposing block cannot commit to a single point, and that is precisely the mechanism for beating a strong wall.

The person behind that distribution is Elle Mottola. A freshman setter, under six feet tall, she set a career high with 45 assists — the second match this season she has reached 40 or more. For a player not yet 20, running a balanced offense at this level is rare, and it makes her the focal point of the entire season's story.

Stanford had Jordyn Harvey. That night, Harvey recorded 18 kills — a match high — at .455, a performance any hitter would envy. It was not enough. When one attacker carries nearly the whole offense, the opposing block only needs to lock onto her in the key rotations. Set one was a microcosm: Arizona State posted 15 kills, Stanford just 10. That gap came not from individual class but from the number of attackers who could speak up.

Then there is the block. Arizona State totaled 12 blocks, and that number explains why Stanford could not build a run once Harvey rotated to the back row. Modern volleyball wins on two things: distribution and net defense. Arizona State had both. The third set was the clearest proof — the team trailed to the brink of defeat, then erupted for 22 kills in a single set. To explode at the tensest moment, a team needs more than one scoring option.

There is one thing I want to say plainly, because the word balance has been praised too much. Three attackers does not mean even distribution. In this match, Clinton and Glover alone accounted for roughly 31.5 of the team's logged points — close to half. This is relative spread compared with Stanford, not a flat offense. In other words: Arizona State is strong because it has three threats, yet it still leans on two main carriers. The difference from its opponent is that the third threat is real, not decorative.

And there is a data problem I must raise, because for someone in the verification business the numbers must reconcile. The report states Clinton and Glover combined for 31.5 of Arizona State's 65 points. But a 25-19, 25-21, 26-24 win means the team scored 76 points. The figure 65 does not match the set scores. It may refer to a sub-category of statistics, or it may be a transcription error. Having once mispronounced a player's name three times during a live broadcast and spent the night reviewing tape, I learned one thing: a name mispronounced three times is still a true story if you listen carefully. But numbers have no right to be vague.

The second thing worth noting is Arizona State's volatility. Before this San Luis Obispo Classic, they opened another tournament with a loss to unranked UC Davis. A team that can topple No. 8 yet also fall to an unknown opponent has a high ceiling and a low floor. With a freshman setter at the controls, that fluctuation is an inevitable by-product of growth. In women's volleyball, I learned that a team does not die on the court — it dies when no one tells its story anymore.

On September 18, Arizona State faces Cal Poly. A clean win would be evidence of a character taking shape. A struggle would force the rising-program story to be rewritten.

Vajagic arrived in Tempe from Wisconsin over the summer. The transfer market is where stories get priced, and summer is the busiest market of all. But the value of a deal lies not in the contract but in how it fits the system. At Arizona State, it fit into a three-pronged machine, behind an 18-year-old who knew how to stay calm at 24-23.

Sports documentaries are not made to answer who won, but to ask why people love the game so much. In San Luis Obispo that night, what stayed with me was not the sweep but the moment a freshman setter bowed her head before stepping into the rotation — and an entire silent bench placing its trust in her.