Published for Phoenix Ascension fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 24, 2026
🏐 Phoenix Ascension Fans — Your Desert Is Rising!
Bright orange, sky blue and pure desert heart — the Phoenix Ascension women are the Valley’s own VLA team, and their 2026 road ran from a home West Cup in Phoenix to the VLA Cup floor in Las Vegas. Tryouts land November 8, 2026, and the new season opens in January. New fan? Start here — and wear the orange.
The Club
The Phoenix Ascension women are Phoenix’s own team in the Volleyball League of America — the women’s side of the Phoenix Ascension organization, playing in the VLA’s West Division at Tier 2. The organization was founded by Vince Zanzucchi, the VLA’s own Director of Operations, who built both the Ascension men’s and women’s teams — and also owns IX Athletics, making Sun City Team IX a genuine sister program. The women run their own voice on Instagram at @ascension_wvb, and they are impossible to miss on the floor: the flagship look is a sleeveless bright orange jersey with sky-blue trim, “Ascension” in sky-blue script across the chest and a big white number below it, finished with black shorts. The league’s own team page still teases “Official team logo coming soon” — a program growing up in public, with Phoenix fans in on the ground floor. Searching for a Phoenix Ascension jersey, the latest Ascension schedule or Ascension tickets? Start with the question the Valley asks all winter: when does Ascension play?
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Last Season (2026): Phoenix to Vegas
There are seasons you measure in trophies, and seasons you measure in miles — and 2026 was a road season for the Ascension women. It started at home: on January 3, 2026, the team contested the West Division Cup (W) in Phoenix, the women’s West Cup on Ascension’s home turf, hosted by Arizona Kings. Four months later came the big trip. On May 8, 2026, the club posted the words every fan loves to read — “Get packing — Las Vegas here we come” — and headed to the VLA Cup at the Las Vegas Convention Center, May 9–11, 2026. It is from that trip that we have the defining image of this team: the Zapanta Sports Media team photograph of May 10, 2026, the squad lined up in the bright orange kit, numbers 3, 7, 9, 10 and 11 all matching the league’s published roster. Match action in the green alternate kit was photographed at both the January West Cup and the May VLA Cup, too. The league has never published results, scores or standings for the Ascension women, so this guide will not invent any. And if you have seen “2026 VLA West Cup Champions” headlines, those belong to the Ascension men — a different team in the same organization. What is documented is a team that showed up, home and away, in the boldest colors in the West.
Best Players Right Now (Published Roster)
The numbers below come from the official roster published on the league’s Phoenix Ascension (W) team page — the most recent numbered roster released for this team. No newer numbered roster has been published, so these are the verified numbers to know until the next one drops — and they hold up: five of them (3, 7, 9, 10, 11) were photographed in use on the team’s orange shirts at the May 2026 VLA Cup. Positions are not published for any Ascension player, so we present them the way the record does: by number and by story. One name from that published list, Emma Melcher (#15), has since been documented with Iowa Volleyume, so we do not count her among the current Ascension squad.
Angela Gore (#7) — The face of the program. Gore is the only player on the published roster with her own public volleyball profile (@6ft4angelagore), and she documented the team’s May 2026 VLA Cup trip herself. Her #7 was right there in the orange kit in Las Vegas.
Anna McCreadie (#9) — The #9 shirt is worn front and center in the May 2026 VLA Cup team photograph — where the heartbeat of a team stands. A core name on the official roster, and a core presence in the orange.
Chenay Gladstone (#11) — Another of the five numbers photo-confirmed in Las Vegas: the #11 shirt appears in the VLA Cup team photograph, keeping Gladstone at the heart of the documented 2026 squad.
Kailee McCoy (#3) — The #3 in the team photograph completes the run of roster numbers verified in the orange kit at the VLA Cup.
Katie Overstreet (#10) — The fifth photo-confirmed number from Las Vegas. In the team photograph, her #10 wears the black contrast kit with its purple side panel and orange print — the alternate look in the Ascension wardrobe.
Klohe Harrion (#16) — Confirmed the modern way: on January 21, 2026, the club’s own account tagged her for a “monster block,” and the match photograph shows the green-kit #16 making it. The spelling is as the league prints it.
Georgia Romine-Black — A documented current-era Ascension player: her coach bio at the Exact Sports X1 Showcase in Phoenix (November 2025) states that she “currently plays Semi-Pro for Ascension in the Volleyball League of America.” She played her college ball at Arizona Western, Olympic College, Bethany and Park University and hails from Kirkland, Washington. No jersey number for her has ever been published — when one is, you will read it here first.
The rest of the published roster: Bella Perea (#4), Maria Adams (#12), Brynja Thompson (#13), Elise Worthington (#17), Tianna Matthews (#21) and Jess Skemp (#22) complete the 13-player list the league published for Ascension — the fullest official record this team has.
Star Spotlight: Stories You Should Know
The photograph that tells the story. Every team has one image that says who they are, and for Ascension it is the Zapanta Sports Media team photograph from the VLA Cup in Las Vegas, May 10, 2026. Look at the detail: sleeveless bright orange jerseys, sky-blue piping on the collar and armholes, “Ascension” in sky-blue cursive script with a thin white outline, a small white crown mark on the right chest, the white VLA wordmark on the left, and a big white number with a sky-blue outline above black shorts. And the numbers — 3, 7, 9, 10, 11 — check out five for five against the roster the league published. In a league where fans often have to guess, Ascension’s record holds up.
One club, four looks. The orange kit is the flagship, but it is not the whole wardrobe. Across 2026 the Ascension women were also photographed in a green-and-black vertical-stripe set (January West Cup, May VLA Cup), a purple set with orange print (the September 23, 2026 open-gym graphic), and the black contrast kit with a purple side panel and a white phoenix silhouette. This is a program still inventing itself — in public, in color.
The founder’s two teams. The twist no other VLA rivalry can match: Vince Zanzucchi — the league’s Director of Operations — founded both the Ascension men’s and women’s teams, and he also owns IX Athletics, the Sun City Team IX program. The Ascension organization’s own site logs local Arizona meetings between IX and “Ascension W” — which means the desert’s bragging-rights match is, quite literally, a family affair.
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This Season (2027): Building Toward January
The next chapter opens in January 2027, and it is a big one for the whole league: the VLA’s inaugural Women’s Tier 1 — a 12-team top flight — debuts alongside the Tier 2 campaign. Where do the Ascension women fit? Honestly: unconfirmed — no tier announcement has named them, so the team is framed as what the record says it is: a Tier 2 West Division side building toward 2027. What is certain is the build. The club teased an open gym on September 23, 2026, and on October 20, 2026 posted the save-the-date every hopeful in the Valley circled: team tryouts on November 8, 2026. The published roster gives the program a documented core — Gore, McCreadie, Gladstone and the photo-confirmed numbers around them — and the tryout floor will decide who joins them. The 2027 fixtures have not been released yet. When they land, the orange will be ready.
Mark Your Calendar: The Road Ahead
Circle the dates ahead, Ascension fans — tryouts first, then the January tip-off — and relive the trips that defined 2026 before the new season lands:
- November 8, 2026 — Team tryouts: The save-the-date posted by @ascension_wvb on October 20, 2026. The 2027 roster starts here.
- January 2027 — The 2027 VLA season opens: The Tier 2 campaign begins, with the inaugural Women’s Tier 1 launching alongside it. Ascension’s exact fixtures are to be confirmed when the league publishes its schedule.
- Relive it — January 3, 2026, the West Division Cup (W): The women’s West Cup on home turf in Phoenix, hosted by Arizona Kings — the day the 2026 road began.
- Relive it — May 9–11, 2026, the VLA Cup: The Las Vegas Convention Center trip that gave us the orange-kit team photograph — the defining image of this team.
- Relive it — May 31, 2025, the VLA Championships: The 2025 season finale at Spooky Nook in Hamilton, Ohio — part of a documented road that also ran through the January 2025 West Cup in Phoenix and the May 2025 VLA Cup in Aurora, Illinois.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. Sun City Team IX — the family feud. The in-state West rival with a twist no other matchup in the league can copy: both programs were built by Vince Zanzucchi, and the Ascension organization’s own site logs local Arizona meetings between IX and “Ascension W.” Two desert programs, one founder, and bragging rights that feel personal — this is the match Phoenix circles.
2. The Phoenix city field — the Valley’s own war. Phoenix Valor, the same-city VLA women’s club, and the Arizona Kings-hosted West Cup scene make the Valley the league’s desert hub — and the women’s West Division Cup is played on Ascension’s home turf. When the whole division comes to your city, every match is a defense of the house.
3. San Francisco Olympic Club — the old guard. A fellow West Division women’s side, and the white-and-maroon team photographed across the net in Ascension’s January 2026 West Cup coverage. The West’s old-guard club against the desert’s rising orange — the contrast writes itself.
A note of honesty, as always with this team: no head-to-head results are published for any of these matchups. These are rivalries of geography, familiarity and pride — and they grow teeth every time the two sides meet.
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Frequently Asked Questions
When do the Phoenix Ascension women play next?
The next date on the calendar is the club’s team tryouts on November 8, 2026, posted by @ascension_wvb. The 2027 VLA season itself opens in January 2027, with the inaugural Women’s Tier 1 launching alongside the Tier 2 campaign — Ascension’s exact fixtures will be confirmed when the league publishes the 2027 schedule.
Where are the Phoenix Ascension women based?
In Phoenix, Arizona. The team plays in the West Division of the Volleyball League of America at Tier 2, and the women’s West Division Cup is hosted right in Phoenix by Arizona Kings — the January 3, 2026 edition was played on the Ascension women’s home turf.
Who are the Phoenix Ascension women’s star players?
Angela Gore (#7), Anna McCreadie (#9) and Chenay Gladstone (#11) headline the roster the league officially published for the team — and all three numbers were photographed in use in the club’s orange kit at the May 2026 VLA Cup in Las Vegas.
Where can I buy Phoenix Ascension fan gear?
Toxlay Sports offers fan-inspired apparel for Ascension supporters — fan-designed gear made for real fans. Note that fan-inspired apparel is not official VLA licensed merchandise.
Sources: Volleyball League of America (usavla.com), Phoenix Ascension Women’s Volleyball (@ascension_wvb), Zapanta Sports Media — schedules and rosters checked October 2026.
Desert Rising — the orange is coming, and Phoenix is just getting started.
