TEMPE, Ariz. – A persistent No. 8 Arizona State volleyball team (14-3, 5-1 Big 12) defended its home court Thursday, besting Arizona (6-11, 1-5 Big 12) 3-1 on Thursday, Oct. 15, in the first Territorial Cup Series match in front of a crowd of over 7,000.

It wasn’t always clean, but each set was hard-fought, and that’s what matters most to Sun Devils head coach JJ Van Niel, who eclipsed 100 wins at the helm of ASU volleyball on Thursday. 

Patience and trust in the process have defined Van Niel's career, with those lessons translating to the court as unrivaled effort.

“When you have high effort, good things happen,” Van Niel said.

This persistence manifested in the second set with ASU up 5-2. After the Wildcats fired the ball deep, Sun Devils junior libero Faith Frame leapt out of the court in pursuit of the ball twice in the same rally.

Van Niel credited Frame with saving an otherwise “busted play,” and her unyielding effort set the tone to win the second set 25-14.

“Faith was able to get it up…next thing you know, we get a point,” Van Niel said. “Effort is a total controllable. We talk about that all the time.

For Frame, her parents exemplified what it means to put in effort from a young age.

“My parents have a really good work ethic,” Frame said. “They've instilled that in me, and that's kind of my role on the team. A libero is supposed to give it all they have, not let the ball hit the floor, and so I think it's just really important that you do that every single play.”

Frame notched 18 digs in the game, surpassing 1,000 career digs on a night where her parents drove 19 hours from Nebraska to support their daughter.

Frame credited her parents with helping to build her into the person she is today.

“My parents have always made me work for everything,” Frame said. “I couldn't be doing the things I'm doing right now without them.”

The cherry on top for Frame on Thursday was another guest who tagged along with her family: Leo the pug. Frame said Leo is her favorite thing in the whole world and that it was very exciting to have him in Tempe.

Both Leo and Frame’s parents will make another cross-country trip for ASU’s next match at No. 17 Kansas, the Sun Devils’ third ranked opponent in four matches.

Now with Arizona in the rearview, Van Niel circled execution as the focus for his team’s matchup against the Jayhawks.

“It's just about the things that we need to do to execute,” Van Niel said. “It's not ‘rah rah, let's go’. It's outsides. This is where they're defending you. This is where your outshots are. This is where you need to be hitting. That's kind of it. Execution.”

The Sun Devils lacked execution in the third set, dropping an 18-15 lead to Arizona and losing the set 25-23.

Van Niel liked how ASU bounced back after missing out on its third straight sweep.

“We weren't playing quite as clean as we have been,” Van Niel said. “But fourth set, we came back strong. We got back to our tough serving and got him in trouble and defended really well.”

The Sun Devils’ next stop is Sunday, Oct. 18th, at Allen Fieldhouse to take on Kansas at 10 a.m. MST.