By Olivia Dowell, media relations intern
Sun Devil Volleyball added three transfers to the roster for this fall 2021 season, and all three have impacted the team immensely. Beatrice Bandini, Jamye Cox and Claire Jeter have each seen time on the court and bring depth and experience to this ASU team trying to make a late-season push for the postseason.
Beatrice Badini
Considering herself to be someone who enjoys being home with her family and close friends, junior Beatrice Badini said the idea of coming to a new country from Castellanza, Italy to further her education did not come across her mind until she was talking to someone during the beginning of quarantine last March.
“She said she thought I could be a student-athlete and have these opportunities,” Badini said. “Then when Sanja texted me, and I was super happy because I looked online after what she had to say and ASU looked super great because it's big and has a lot of sports.”
Playing at home overseas, Badini led her club team, Tecnoteam Albese, to a Series A first-place finish over the summer, and also prior to coming to the U.S., her club team defeated Picco Lecco in the championship to advance to the A2 series for the first time. In her first season as a Sun Devil so far, Badini has seen action in 68 sets, totaling 42 blocks, which is second-highest on the team. To this point, she has six kills as her season-high and in a win over UC Davis, Badini had a career-high five blocks.
Badini being 22-years-old, along with her also playing in the Italian league, helps bring experience to the team, Tomasevic said in a press release when Badini’s signing was announced.
"Beatrice is another athletic, tall student-athlete with a good arm we added in the middle this offseason,” Tomasevic said. “She will bring maturity to our team and experience from playing in the Italian league.”
Badini said that playing volleyball at the Division I level in the Pac-12 helps to mature student-athletes not only on the court as a player, but also off the court as a person.
“I think that it helps you so much to grow,” Badini said. “I'm 22, so I'm not a freshman, but at the beginning, I felt completely like a freshman, so even for me it's a very big opportunity to grow up.”
Badini completed her undergraduate degree at home prior to coming to Arizona, which in Italy normally takes about three years. Like her teammate and roommate Jamye Cox, Badini is currently working on her master’s degree in Organizational Leadership during her time in Tempe. While living with a fellow teammate, Badini said this has helped her adjust to the differences in receiving an education in the U.S. compared to what she’s used to.
“I'm so happy that she (Jamye) lives with me because she helped me a lot at the first part of this experience where she explained how to do homework on Canvas because that was completely strange and new for me,” Badini said. “We also have class together right now, so she's super open to communication and open to me every time.”
Jamye Cox
While playing at Michigan State as its libero for four seasons, grad transfer Jamye Cox is in Tempe this year to get her master’s degree in Organizational Leadership while using her final year of eligibility.
“The biggest part is it's not even about wins and losses and it's not about volleyball,” Cox said of her time at ASU. “The family here is incredible and I've always been very big on a community and family and finding friendships with teams and just finding people who love the sport.”
While in East Lansing playing for MSU, Cox was the starting libero for the team all four seasons she played and ranks fourth all-time at MSU in career digs and in career digs per set. Off the court, she was the 2021 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and was also named Academic All-Big Ten three times throughout her undergrad.
After graduating from MSU with her bachelor’s degree in December 2020, Cox began taking classes for a graduate program at MSU in spring 2021. When coming to ASU this fall, Cox said she was able to get a lot of her credits transferred over which made her transition smoother.
“I will say that the classes are run and all of that stuff is very different than at MSU, but I think the professors here are great,” Cox said. “Our academic advisors and the support that we have to keep us on top of everything, so it's definitely been super smooth but it's been smooth with the help that I’ve gotten.”
Cox made her first appearance for the Sun Devils in the opening match against Texas A&M- Corpus Christi where she had seven digs. A week later in Nebraska, she led the team with digs and then had her first career start for ASU on October 1 in a matchup with Stanford. Cox started as libero on Oct. 10 against UW, where she had a season-high 17 digs.
With coming into a new program as a fifth-year instead of an underclassman, Cox said adjusting to a new style of play has been the biggest thing she’s had to pick up on and being willing to adjust.
“There's a lot of great things that MSU taught me, but overall it’s just having an open mind and being okay with change,” Cox said. “It doesn't matter how old I am, I still need to learn what this team does right, so just being open-minded and being flexible and willing to adjust.”
The competition for libero has been close, with Cox and junior Annika Larson forming a bond through that battle for the spot.
"I think in that libero position we have camaraderie, friendship, competition going on and it's fun,” Tomasevic said earlier this season when asked about Cox’s role. “When you see them in practice, they kind of help each other out and that's kind of the dream of a coach, you have a team that in practice they go at it, and then they stay off and practice and they help each other out and then on a game day they have each other's back. It's really been like that this entire preseason."
Claire Jeter
Playing her first season of college volleyball in her home state of Texas at Texas A&M, sophomore middle blocker Claire Jeter said she was looking for new opportunities out of state, which is what brought her to Tempe.
“Before I even committed the first time, I didn't really want to stay in-state so [the transferring process] for me was to decide to go out of state to try something new,” Jeter said. “The coaches have a lot of experience playing overseas and playing professionally for a majority of their time. So, it was a pretty easy pick and just to transition here was really easy for me.”
While playing for the Aggies, Jeter played 32 sets for the team and had 53 kills and 10 blocks. While in high school in Missouri City, Texas, Jeter led her team to runner-up and third-place finishes. As a senior, Jeter was named an All-American by PrepVolleyball.com and the Under Armour All-American Second Team.
When Jeter decided to transfer, Tomasevic saw her in the transfer portal and took action right away.
" I recruited her when she was in high school, but she committed to Texas A&M pretty early,” Tomasevic said earlier this season. “As soon as I saw her name in the transfer portal, I texted her and we talked the next morning and she said she didn't consider any other options, so I was stoked. She didn't even come and visit so she was sold as soon as we started talking. It's a huge get for us, to know that we have her for the next four years. She's not only a great player but also a great culture kid. She's fiery, she has a good vibe for the team, she never makes it about her and is a really good teammate. I think adding Claire opens up Marta and Iman so much more, it makes their lives easier."
Jeter has nine matches this season where she’s reached double digits in kills. In her debut as a Sun Devil, Jeter had the first point on the season for ASU in the opening match against Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Further, Jeter is also one of three ASU hitters to reach triple digits in kills with 250 and joins teammates Iman Isanovic and Marta Levinska with that feat.
Jeter also set her career-high of kills with 15 in the matchup with Utah Valley. Additionally, she has the highest hitting percentage out of all of her teammates (who have 100 or more total attacks) with .352. Right from the start, she was a crucial piece of the lineup.
"Claire has a really good arm,” Tomasevic said after a match earlier this season. “She can hit any shot. She can hit cross-line, zone one, or zone five. She does a really good job. I think her and Ella (Snyder)'s connection is pretty good. Claire has been that consistent piece in our offense.”
Coming from an SEC school, Jeter said she has learned to adjust to playing in the Pac-12, which she considers to be one of the best conferences in the country for volleyball.
“It's just been kind of getting to know that no matter what team you're playing, it's not going to be an easy game,” Jeter said. “Which of course, there were a couple of games where we figured they'd be pretty easy to win and pretty easy to be done.”
While having an underclassman role within the Aggies program, Jeter said she is looking to develop more of a leadership role throughout her time with the Sun Devils.
“I want to be an impact player here and I want to help us grow to be a program that can make it to the tournament and be a big team that people are scared to play,” Jeter said. “And I feel like we're on our way.”