ASU football’s latest setback turned Saturday into another rough checkpoint for Kenny Dillingham’s team, while several other Sun Devil programs kept stacking wins on the road.
The football side took the hardest hit. ASU fell 53-25 to Texas Tech in Lubbock, a result that added to a growing list of problems after the Red Raiders became the second straight conference opponent to hang 50-plus points on the Sun Devils.
Junior quarterback Cutter Boley started but was pulled after the first half, having thrown two interceptions. Sixth-year quarterback Mikey Keene took over and gave ASU a lift in a game that was already tilting badly, finishing with 256 passing yards and two touchdowns.
Even with that spark, the defensive issues stayed front and center. Texas Tech junior running back J'Koby Williams ran for 165 yards and two touchdowns, while junior quarterback Will Hammond added 232 passing yards and a touchdown, plus 25 rushing yards and another score on the ground. Dillingham said after the game that the quarterback spot, along with other personnel, will be assessed this week before Saturday’s home matchup with Kansas State.
While football searched for answers, hockey, soccer and volleyball all delivered plenty of positives.
ASU hockey opened a new chapter Friday and Saturday with Dave Hakstol taking over as head coach and Matt Greene joining him as an assistant. The Sun Devils responded by sweeping UMass Lowell in Hakstol’s first series behind the bench.
The new-look group got contributions from across the roster, including transfer junior forward Jack O'Brien, who scored his first NCAA goal, as well as freshmen Landon Hafele and Lukas Sawchyn. Senior forward and captain Kyle Smolen also reached a milestone with his 70th career point, picking up an assist on Hafele’s goal and becoming one of only ten Sun Devils to do so.
The sweep didn’t come easy. ASU nearly let a 3-0 lead slip in the opener before Sawchyn buried a late goal to seal a 5-4 win.
The second game produced a different set of scorers, but the same result: a 4-2 victory and a sweep. Ben Muthersbaugh scored again, and freshman Nathan Behm also found the net, while sophomore goaltender Samuel Urban held steady with 33 saves in game one and a career-high 42 in game two.
Conference play now looms with St. Cloud State set for Oct.
On the soccer pitch, ASU went to Stillwater, Oklahoma, and snapped a three-game winless stretch with a 2-1 win over Oklahoma St. Friday.
The Sun Devils built the game through possession, then struck in the 21st minute when senior defender Lucy Fazackerley headed a corner across goal and junior forward Sierra Bergen finished it. After Oklahoma St. pressed hard in the second half and outshot ASU 13-6, freshman defender Gator DeMark gave the Sun Devils some breathing room with a looping shot that found the top left corner for her first collegiate goal.
Sophomore goalkeeper Izzy Duink made her first collegiate start and came up with six saves, five of them in the second half. A late handball by freshman defender Amy Medley led to a penalty that spoiled the shutout bid, but ASU still walked away with a result it badly needed.
The Sun Devils still have work to do to secure a Big 12 tournament berth, with No. 13 Baylor, Colorado and rival Arizona still left at home.
Volleyball kept rolling too, and it did it with a couple of statement wins. On Thursday against Arizona in the first Territorial Cup match of 2026, No.
8 ASU won in four sets after jumping out to a 2-0 lead, dropping the third, then taking the fourth 25-16 to extend its winning streak to five. Coach JJ Van Niel stayed unbeaten against Arizona and also picked up his 100th career victory in just 117 games, the fastest in program history.
Junior libero Faith Frame reached 1,000 digs in that match, doing it with 18 digs against Arizona. Senior opposite hitter Noemie Glover added 23 kills and a career-high 16 digs for her fourth career double-double, while junior outside hitter Una Vajagić posted her seventh double-double of the season and senior setter Isabella Costantini finished with 32 assists.
ASU then traveled to Kansas on Sunday and authored another comeback, this time against No. 17 Kansas.
The Sun Devils dropped the first two sets 25-17 and 25-14 before reversing the whole thing and earning another ranked win, improving their ranked-win mark to 7-1 and pushing their streak to six. Glover powered the turnaround with a season-high 25 kills, and Frame again gave ASU major help on defense with 17 digs.
Next up is a road trip through Utah, with matches against the Utes and BYU on Thursday and Saturday.
In Other News...
Arizona States Secret Scrimmage Has Fans Watching For One Early Sign
Arizona State appears to have quietly gotten a first look at another opponent before the real preseason slate begins. Colorado States social media account said the two programs met for a mens basketball scrimmage on Oct. 17, giving the Sun Devils an early chance to test themselves in a low-profile setting before their exhibition games later in the month.
There has been no official score or detailed recap, and Arizona State has not posted anything about the workout, which leaves fans reading between the lines for any hint of where the roster stands. For now, the intrigue is less about the result than the fact that the Sun Devils already have a live evaluation under their belt, with the more public preseason action still ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Arizona State Suddenly Has A Quarterback Decision It Can't Ignore
Arizona States quarterback picture got a lot murkier in the middle of a rough night against Texas Tech, when junior Cutter Boley threw two interceptions, including a pick-six, as the Sun Devils fell behind in a hurry. Head coach Kenny Dillingham turned to sixth-year quarterback Mikey Keene at halftime, and the switch immediately gave the offense a different look.
Keene responded by throwing for 256 yards and two touchdowns in the second half, enough to make the move impossible to ignore as Dillingham heads into the next stretch of the season. The coach said he would evaluate the position moving forward, and after a game like this, Arizona State has a decision looming that it can no longer treat as routine. [Read more 🡒]
Arizona State Gets Another Huge Chance In A Place That Haunts Fans
Arizona State gets another crack at one of the tougher spots on its schedule on Oct. 31, when it heads to Provo, Utah, to face No. 2 BYU. The Sun Devils are sitting at 3-3 and trying to steady their season, while the Cougars come in fresh off a high-profile win over Notre Dame and carrying one of the nations best rankings into kickoff at 1:30 p.m. MST on FOX.
The matchup also brings back plenty of history between the programs, with Arizona State still ahead in the all-time series but BYU having taken the recent meetings. For Sun Devils fans, the trip to Provo has a way of stirring old memories, and this one arrives with even more weight given where BYU stands now and what ASU is still trying to prove in the second half of the season. [Read more 🡒]