TEMPE – The 2026 Sun Devil Beach Volleyball team returns a deep group of veteran talent alongside promising newcomers ready to compete for Arizona State under third-year head coach Kristen Glattfelder.
Schedule outlook
The schedule features 10 weekends of competition, two of them at home. The Sun Devils will face 10 of the 16 teams that participated in the 2025 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship and will face all four national semifinalists (TCU, LMU, Cal Poly and UCLA). This season also features 13 teams that finished in the top 20 in the AVCA Coaches Poll.
The Big 12 Beach Volleyball Championships will be hosted at Arizona from April 23-24.
Last season
The 2025 Sand Devils won 22 games to break the program record, with a 22-14 record overall. The team achieved a 9-1 finish on home sand as well. The Sun Devils ended the year ranked No. 12 in the AVCA Coaches Poll. The team remained in the top 15 all season, reaching as high as No. 10. At the Big 12 Beach Volleyball Championships, ASU finished second, coming up shy in a 3-2 battle against eventual 2025 NCAA National Champions and conference foe, TCU.
Arizona State went undefeated against unranked opponents last year, continuing a trend formed in the 2024 season. The Sand Devils also tallied seven ranked wins, the second most in a season in program history.
Returners
Arizona State has 10 returners for the 2026 season, securing veteran talent to lead the squad. Seven of these players have significant experience and are posited to be core members of this team.
Redshirt senior Samaya Morin was named an AVCA Second Team All-American in 2025, making her the third All-American in program history. She was also named to the Big 12 All-Conference Team and Big 12 All-Tournament Team. Morin and her partner and fellow redshirt senior Ava Kirunchyk went 3-1 at the Big 12 Championships, picking up a win over the No. 1 pair from No. 1 seed TCU. Overall, Morin finished 17-9 with five ranked wins on the season.
Kirunchyk was also named to the Big 12 All-Conference Team and Big 12 All-Tournament Team. She completed the season playing in the majority of the duals, going 22-10, which is tied for the seventh-best single season win total in team history. She had the highest winning percentage at .687 and achieved a Big 12 Pair of the Week in early April.
Senior Daniella Kensinger was the third Sun Devil part of the Big 12 All-Conference Team after playing in every dual last season, going 21-14 and collecting seven ranked wins. Her win total ranks 10th in the single-season record book for the Sun Devils. Kensinger was one of the first players to achieve the first Big 12 award nod last year in early March for Big 12 Pair of the Week.
Senior Tori Clement played in all but one dual last season with a 20-14 record, the majority of her wins being with senior Kendall Whitmarsh. Whitmarsh also played in every dual with a 20-14 final line.
Both received Big 12 Pair of the Week in late March. The duo won 11 matches in a row, which is the longest winning streak by a pair in program history. Clement was named to the CSC Academic All-District At-Large Team.
Senior Arden Besecker had a 14-11 individual record and was named to the Big 12 All-Tournament Team. She and her previous partner went 2-0 in the Big 12 Championship, including a ranked win over the No. 5 pair from No. 1 seed TCU.
Junior Olivia McElroy saw playing time at every dual, compiling a 19-16 record in her first season at Arizona State. She picked up eight ranked wins.
Other returners who saw playing time include junior Kaydon Meyers and sophomores Zoë Taylor and Layla Williams. Each of them played in at least three duals, with Taylor getting the most playing time with a 6-7 record on court five.
Newcomers
The Sand Devils have seven new faces this year: three freshmen and four transfers. Graduate Reagan Hope spent her last two seasons at UCLA and played in six duals with a 5-1 record. She also played beach for Oregon back in 2022 and went 19-2, where she earned a 2022 Pac-12 All-Freshman Team nod. Junior Kristin Gilmour played her first two seasons at Houston Christian and went 19-9 to lead the team in individual wins. She earned a Southland Conference Pair of the Week award in 2025.
Senior McKenna Flaherty joins the Sun Devils with a 13-7 career record after three seasons at Florida State. Junior Addy White spent her first two seasons also at Florida State after making her collegiate debut in 2024.
The freshmen are Tatum Hemenway, Emma McSorley and Harper Nelson. Each bring strong experience from their club days before committing to ASU.
Up next
The team will hold its annual Maroon and Gold Scrimmage on Feb. 13 at 4 p.m. MST at the Sun Devil Beach Volleyball Facility. The 2026 Sun Devil Beach Volleyball season will begin on Feb. 20 at the Canyon Classic at Grand Canyon.