Published for Mesa Las Muertas fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 24, 2026
🦉 Mesa Las Muertas Fans — Your Desert Owls Are Waiting!
Two straight West Division Cup fields, a VLA Cup trip to Las Vegas and a nationals weekend in Orlando — all in the teal gradient with the owl sweeping across the front. The Las Muertas women are the Valley’s quiet regulars, and the desert’s most distinctive kit is waiting for its moment. Wear the owl and ride with Mesa.
The Club
The Mesa Las Muertas women are the Arizona desert’s entry in the Volleyball League of America — the women’s side of the Mesa program that plays under the single club account @losmuertos.vla (“Mesa Los Muertos”), with the men’s Los Muertos squad as its sibling team. The women play in the VLA’s West Division as a Tier 2 side, with documented league matches at BASIS Mesa and a training base at Aspire Volleyball in Chandler, Arizona, where the club runs its tryouts and open gyms. The identity is the owl — a stylized owl with outstretched wings perched on a skull, rendered in teal, purple and white, with the club hashtag #otfu (“on the floor”) on its women’s posts — and the kit is one of the most recognizable in the West: a sleeveless jersey in teal and turquoise at the shoulders fading vertically through light blue to white and pale at the hem, a dark wing and owl graphic sweeping across the lower front, black side panels, a small VLA mark on the upper chest and a small owl logo set into the dark graphic, worn with black shorts and leggings, while the libero wears a solid black sleeveless contrast kit. The club has never published jersey numbers — its official roster graphic names players with positions only — so this guide names its stars without numbers rather than inventing any. Searching for a Mesa Las Muertas jersey, the latest Las Muertas roster or Las Muertas schedule news? Start with the question Mesa asks every winter: when do Las Muertas play?
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Sarah Kerbaugh’s teal-gradient Las Muertas home jersey look — fan-inspired apparel made for Mesa fans.
Last Season (2025-26): Two Cups, Vegas and Orlando — Without a Published Score
The Las Muertas women’s most recent completed cycle was a traveller’s season. The club unveiled its official 2025-26 roster on August 20, 2025 — fourteen players, named with positions — and then lived on the road: a VLA league match against Phoenix Ascension at BASIS Mesa on November 16, 2025, a league match against the AZ Strikers at BASIS Mesa on December 7, 2025 after the GCU Tournament the day before, and a December 21, 2025 double-header against Phoenix Ascension and the Gila Monsters. January brought the West Division Cup (W) on January 3–4, 2026 at The Pyramid in Phoenix, where Las Muertas were the Pool B No. 3 seed alongside Phoenix Ascension, the Gila Monsters and the AZ Strikers, including an 11 AM meeting with the Gila Monsters on January 3. May brought the two big trips: the VLA Cup on May 9–11, 2026 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and the USAV Adult Open National Championship on May 22–24, 2026 in Orlando, where the club posted live from the women’s matches. No results, scores or placings for the women were published for any of it — the record is the travelling itself, and the fact that Mesa kept showing up. The season before tells the same story with one glorious exception: at the West Division Cup (W) on January 11–12, 2025 at The Pyramid, Las Muertas were the Pool B No. 5 seed and beat Adirondack Avalanche 3–0 in pool play on January 11 — the one documented result in club history — before meeting Phoenix Ascension in the pool and DC Dynasty in Quarter Final 2, neither result ever published.
Best Players Right Now (The Official 2025-26 Roster)
Sarah Kerbaugh, Setter — The featured shirt in this guide and the first name on the setter line of the club’s official roster graphic. Every Las Muertas attack runs through the setter, and Kerbaugh is the one the 2025-26 squad was built around.
Natalia Dominovic, Outside Hitter — The left-pin presence on the official roster. Dominovic gives Mesa its outside threat — the attacker the Valley’s blocks have to plan for first.
Emily Butters, Libero — The back-row anchor in the solid black contrast kit. On a roster full of teal gradients, the libero in black is the one holding the whole defense together.
Cassandra Guidice, Outside Hitter — More pin depth behind Dominovic. Guidice gives the Las Muertas a second outside option on a roster built for long tournament days.
Baylee Lippincott, Outside Hitter — A third outside on the official roster. Three outsides is real depth on the VLA’s circuit, where three-match days reward the team that can keep fresh legs on the pin.
Tianna Matthews, Outside Hitter — The fourth outside in the fourteen-player group. Mesa’s 2025-26 roster leans heavily on the pins — and Matthews is part of that depth.
Kayla Frahm, Middle Blocker — One of three middles on the official roster. Frahm anchors the net rotation that has to stand up to the West’s biggest front lines.
Samantha Keefe, Middle Blocker — A second middle in the group. Keefe keeps the Mesa block fresh across the long cup weekends.
Sydney Prochnow, Middle Blocker — The third middle on the roster. Three middles, four outsides, two setters, two opposites, a utility and two liberos — no wasted spots.
Kaylee Hurd, Opposite — The right-side attacker on the official roster. Hurd gives the setter a second scoring option away from the outside.
Jenny Liebl, Opposite — The second opposite in the group. Two true opposites is genuine depth for a semi-pro roster.
Delaney Micensky, Setter — The second setter behind Kerbaugh. Two setters means the offense can change shape without changing its system — a luxury on three-match days.
Mahealani Rubin, Utility — The utility piece on the official roster. Rubin is the roster’s flex option — the player who fills whatever gap a tournament weekend opens.
Emily Vitel, Libero — The second libero behind Butters. Two liberos in black means the back row never runs out of cover, no matter how long the day gets.
Star Spotlight: Stories You Should Know
The owl. Most VLA clubs borrow a mascot. Las Muertas built a whole identity around one: the owl with outstretched wings perched on a skull, in teal, purple and white, sweeping across the front of the gradient jersey and stamped on everything the club posts. In a league of block letters and initials, the desert owl is the mark you recognize from the other end of the gym.
The one result on record. For a club that publishes almost no scores, one morning stands alone: January 11, 2025, at The Pyramid in Phoenix, when Las Muertas swept Adirondack Avalanche 3–0 in West Division Cup pool play. It is the only documented result in the women’s program’s history — and it is a sweep, in the club’s first West Cup field, against an East Division side that would later reach the league’s Championship pool conversation. Every Las Muertas story starts there.
The open rebuild. While other clubs go quiet between seasons, Mesa recruits in the open. Through autumn 2026 the club ran women’s tryouts on September 20, October 4, October 9 and October 16, plus open gyms on October 11 and October 18, all at the Aspire New Gym in Chandler — ten dollars a session, doors open, the next squad being built in public. That is the Las Muertas way: no closed doors, just the owl and the floor.
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Emily Butters — Mesa Las Muertas Style Jersey
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Butters’ black libero look — the solid contrast kit.
This Season (2027): The Tier 1 Era Opens — Placement Unpublished
The VLA women’s game changes shape in January 2027: the league’s new Women’s Tier 1 — a 12-team top flight with promotion and relegation — debuts, and the 2027 VLA season opens in the same month. Las Muertas’ tier placement has not been published by the club or the league, and this guide will not guess it — the honest framing is a documented West Division regular, two straight West Cup fields behind it, recruiting openly out of its Aspire and Chandler base for whatever the Tier 1 era brings. No 2026-27 roster has been published yet; the official August 2025 roster remains the latest word on who wears the owl. Fixtures will land when the league publishes them, and the club’s channels at @losmuertos.vla are where the next squad will appear first.
Mark Your Calendar: The Road Ahead
Circle the date that matters, Las Muertas fans — then relive the weekends that carried the owls from Mesa to Orlando:
- January 2027 — the 2027 VLA season opens: League play resumes and the Women’s Tier 1 debuts league-wide. Las Muertas’ fixtures and tier placement will be confirmed when the league publishes them.
- Relive it — January 11, 2025, the documented win: Las Muertas swept Adirondack Avalanche 3–0 in West Division Cup pool play at The Pyramid in Phoenix — the one published result in club history.
- Relive it — January 3–4, 2026, the West Division Cup: Pool B’s No. 3 seed at The Pyramid, with Phoenix Ascension, the Gila Monsters and the AZ Strikers in the pool.
- Relive it — December 21, 2025, the double-header: A league double-header against Phoenix Ascension and the Gila Monsters to close the calendar year.
- Relive it — May 2026, Vegas and Orlando: The VLA Cup in Las Vegas on May 9–11, then the USAV Adult Open National Championship in Orlando on May 22–24 — the two big trips that closed the 2025-26 cycle.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. Phoenix Ascension — the repeat fixture. No opponent appears more often on the Las Muertas card: pool-mates at both West Division Cups (January 2025 and January 2026), a BASIS Mesa league day meeting on November 17, 2024, a VLA league match at BASIS Mesa on November 16, 2025, and the December 21, 2025 double-header opener. No score between the two has ever been published — the rivalry is familiarity and geography, two Valley programs meeting over and over.
2. Phoenix Valor — the 2024-25 four-meeting series. Four documented meetings in five months: November 9, 2024 at Ottawa University, November 17, 2024 at BASIS Mesa, the December 14, 2024 Jolley Volley holiday match at the Arizona Athletic Grounds, and March 9, 2025 at the Victorium in Scottsdale. Valor’s own file calls Las Muertas its repeat opponent — and Valor has since gone quiet, with no documented 2026 activity.
3. Gila Monsters — the new Arizona neighbour. The other Arizona women’s VLA presence: Las Muertas met them in the December 21, 2025 double-header and again as Pool B opponents at the January 2026 West Division Cup, 11 AM on January 3 at The Pyramid. Two desert programs sharing a division and a calendar.
4. Adirondack Avalanche & DC Dynasty — the January 2025 bracket. The two names from the first West Cup run: Adirondack, swept 3–0 in pool play for the club’s only documented result, and DC Dynasty, the Quarter Final 2 opponents later that same day, a result never published. Dynasty went on to the 2026 Women’s Championship pool — the level Las Muertas are chasing.
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Gear up with fan-inspired apparel made for Las Muertas fans — the teal gradient and owl look.
Frequently Asked Questions
When do the Mesa Las Muertas women play next?
The VLA women’s season opens again in January 2027, when the new Women’s Tier 1 debuts league-wide. Las Muertas’ fixtures and tier placement have not been published yet — watch the league site and the club’s channels at @losmuertos.vla for the schedule drop.
Where are the Mesa Las Muertas women based?
In Mesa, Arizona, in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The women play in the VLA’s West Division as a Tier 2 side, with documented league matches at BASIS Mesa and a training base at Aspire Volleyball in Chandler, Arizona.
Who are the Mesa Las Muertas women’s star players?
Setter Sarah Kerbaugh, outside hitter Natalia Dominovic and libero Emily Butters headline the club’s official 2025-26 roster. The club has never published jersey numbers, so this guide names its stars without numbers rather than inventing any.
Where can I buy Mesa Las Muertas fan gear?
Toxlay Sports offers fan-inspired apparel for Las Muertas 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), the Mesa Las Muertas club channels and announcements — schedules and rosters checked October 2026.
On the floor — the owls of Mesa are just getting started.
