Stanford among four No. 1 seeds
Stanford earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament and would host one of four regionals if it advances that far.
The Cardinal (24-4), winners of 18 in a row, will host a first-round match against Pepperdine (19-10) on Friday. With a win, Stanford would face the winner of the LSU-Hawaii matchup on Saturday. The Cardinal’s bracket also includes No. 4 seed Creighton, No. 3 seed Kentucky, and No. 2 seed San Diego. The other top seeds are Texas, defending national champion Wisconsin and Louisville.
Stanford hasn’t lost since Sept. 25, when it fell to Oregon. Since then, the Cardinal have lost two sets in a match only two times. Stanford clinched the Pac-12 with its win over Oregon State last week before sweeping Cal (winless in conference play for a second consecutive season) on Friday in its regular-season finale.
“I don’t think this group will peak this year,” said head coach Kevin Hambly after that match. “I feel very good about how we’re playing. But if we were peaking right now, I’d be very concerned. I don’t think we’ve arrived.”
Led by sophomore setter Kami Miner, the Cardinal are sixth in the nation with 13.56 assists per set. Miner finished eighth in the nation. On defense, McKenna Vicini leads a Cardinal squad that achieved an NCAA eighthbest 2.72 blocks per set.
It has been a bounceback season for a program that saw one of its roughest patches the past two seasons. Stanford fell to Minnesota in the NCAA Tournament’s second round last season, and that was an unsatisfactory comeback from a 2-8 season during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign that left it out of the postseason for the first time.
Stanford’s seventh-best .292 hitting percentage in the country has been a marker of progress for a team that struggled with service errors earlier in the season.
“I think we matured a lot competitively,” Hambly said. “We were still figuring out how to win. I think these past two months, we learned.”
Looking ahead, Pepperdine is a tough draw for a top seed. The Waves beat then-No. 9 Baylor, Washington, No. 2 Minnesota, and Washington State this season and spent time in the top 25.
Stanford’s record is its best since going 30-4 in 2019, when it won its ninth national title. Five players remain from that squad, including starters Kendall Kipp, Caitie Baird, and Vicini. The Cardinal went to four consecutive Final Fours from 2016-19.
The Cardinal faced 13 tournament teams during the regular season, winning nine of those sets. That early season slate allowed Stanford to test itself and put itself in playoff-like situations, with the goal of preparing the younger players for tournament moments.
Still, Hambly doesn’t think this is the final version of the Cardinal’s rebuilding effort. Only three players are graduating — Selina Xu, Natalie Berty and transfer Emily Teehan. Kipp and Baird are expected to take fifth years, Miner is still just a sophomore, and freshman Elia Rubin has become a force at outside hitter. Sophomore middle blocker Sami Francis has missed most of the season after a dominant start and will be back next season, too.
“We had a lot of room for growth, and I think we still do,” Hambly said. “This group will be back for another year, and I think we’ll learn from this one, too.”