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By David Londono
Cronkite News
TEMPE – Amid the chaos unfolding on five courts with 20 people hitting a volleyball, Arizona State beach volleyball players and coaches can feel the start of the season approaching and the intensity has risen to an all-time high.
Coach Kristen Glattfelder, in her second year at ASU’s helm, took multitasking to another level, somehow seeing all of her players and offering critique to every court as if she had five sets of eyes. That’s what it takes to turn around a program.
She inherited a team that went under .500 with no expectations before her arrival and turned it into a playoff contender seemingly overnight.
Now, Glattfelder leads the Sand Devils into a new season beginning Thursday at the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Classic in Hawaii. (ASU’s beach volleyball team is referred to as the Sand Devils or Sun.)
The competition will be stiff with six teams ranked in the top 10 last year, including the reigning champion USC Trojans.
“You have to play the best to be the best and I think that’s going to be a big indicator of where we’re at and what areas we need to improve on,” Glattfelder said. “We have to be mentally tough, and we’re going to have to battle through the ups and downs and be OK with a little bit of failure at times to learn from it.”
Coming off its best season in program history, Glattfelder has set the bar high after a first-round exit in the NCAA Championship. ASU is on a mission to prove last season wasn’t its peak, but a stepping stone to solidify the Sand Devils as one of the best teams in the nation.
“We want to go back and make some more noise, compete for a national championship because we kind of have a chip on our shoulders now and we want to go back in the tournament and prove ourselves,” Glattfelder said.
In her first season with ASU, the Sand Devils secured their first playoff berth in program history with 21 wins, the most in school history. Last season included 11 wins against ranked teams, after previously totaling 13 in program history.
Glattfelder, a former Division I volleyball player and a former professional beach volleyball player, won Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors during her first year at Arizona State. She previously spent eight years at Grand Canyon University, where she experienced similar success. Her teams finished ranked in seven of her eight seasons there, she was named the AVCA Coach of the Year in 2022 during the Lopes’ first playoff appearance, not to mention helping produce future pro player Molly Turner.
But when the opportunity to move across the Valley to coach in Tempe was presented, Glattfelder said it was too tempting to pass, citing the support and desire to build a strong program.
“When you have people who are bought into what you’re doing, want to work hard, want to be successful, and want to be a part of something special, it ends up working itself out,” Glattfelder said.
Beach volleyball is a duos game with five pairs of duos playing at once. Players must be able to compete at a mix of positions, in comparison to indoor volleyball where each of the six has a designated role.
Finding the perfect pairing is critical in a sport where if the roster number is 20 players, then there are 190 different combinations of pairs, but Glattfelder has thrived in building team chemistry.
“A pair could look great on paper and then you put them together and you’re like, well, that didn’t really work out well, but I think it’s about seeing what we have as a whole, piecing together to figure out how to have five really solid pairs so they can connect and work together,” Glattfelder said.
Anya Pemberton, a senior, and junior Daniella Kensinger started last season as a duo during the Sand Devils’ first 4-0 start to a season. They went into the 2024 season feeling amped up with a fresh start behind their new coach and ready to make a name for themselves and felt a sense of togetherness while being all in.
Kensinger – who grew up near Manhattan Beach, Calif., the “mecca of beach volleyball” – became ASU’s first all-American in program history as a sophomore and earned Pac-12 First Team honors after transferring from Saint Mary’s to join Glattfelder.
“Kristen (Glattfelder) believes in all of us,” Kensinger said. “She knows the depth that our roster has, and she knows that all of us have the potential to make a huge impact, everyone has a role on the team, and I think she’s defined that for us.”
Senior Anya Pemberton had a forgettable season two years ago with a 4-15 record, however, her talent wasn’t the problem as demonstrated in an upset win over No. 2 Utah. Her record flipped dramatically once Glattfelder took over, with Pemberton going 17-12.
“When she came, I felt like practice felt a lot more competitive in terms of the culture than it was the year before,” Pemberton said. “And then going into the season last year, I felt a lot more mentally prepared than I was my sophomore year, calmer and being calm for me is the biggest thing that is helping me.”
Glattfelder’s support, intensity, preparation, knowledge and reliability stood out as ASU finished with its best record in program history, creating optimism as a new season approaches.
“We bring a lot of competitive nature and that starts in practice, we have so much talent, and we’ve nurtured a culture that’ll set apart this season from last,” Kensinger said.
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