On the RiseOn the Rise
Beach Volleyball

On the Rise

STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford beach volleyball, in its sixth season as a program, finished with a 17-13 overall record, its highest win total in program history. The team matched its best postseason finish in the Pac-12 Championship with a 1-2 record as the No. 4 seed.
 
RECORDS SET
The 2018 season saw many records broken for the Cardinal. Five current players now have a spot on the program's individual all-time wins leaders list: No. 1 Courtney Bowen (43), No. 2 Catherine Raquel (38), No. 4 Payton Chang (33), No. 5 Morgan Hentz (31), and No. 10 Sunny Villapando (23). Stanford's top-five list of individual single-season wins leaders also now features current Cardinal: T1 Courtney Bowen (23), T-1 Sunny Villapando (23), T-3 Kate Formico (18), T-3 Morgan Hentz (18), and T-3 Amelia Smith (18).

 
The duo of Morgan Hentz and Amelia Smith, first-time partners, set its own list of records this season. Playing together in each dual this year, Hentz and Smith set the single-season record for wins as a pair with 18. They also became the program's all-time career wins leaders with that mark in just one season of service together.
 

No place else we'd rather be. ???????? #GoStanford

A post shared by Stanford Beach Volleyball (@stanfordbeachvb) on Apr 26, 2018 at 12:47pm PDT


HISTORIC TOURNAMENT ON THE FARM
For the first time in program history, Stanford hosted the Pac-12 Championship at Stanford Beach Volleyball Stadium April 26-28. The fourth-seeded Cardinal opened its first dual of the tournament with a win against the No. 5 seed Arizona, 4-1. Stanford then dropped a dual to eventual Pac-12 and NCAA Champion UCLA before ending its season with a 4-1 loss to Washington.
 

What a weekend on The Farm. Until next year... #GoStanford

A post shared by Stanford Beach Volleyball (@stanfordbeachvb) on Apr 30, 2018 at 8:59pm PDT


ALL-AMERICAN DUO
Sophomore Kathryn Plummer and freshman Sunny Villapando were named All-America Honorable Mention by VolleyballMag.com, the first for the pair as a duo and the lone All-America distinction for the Cardinal.
 
As a duo in Stanford's No. 1 flight this season, Plummer and Villapando amassed an 11-5 record. Their 11 wins were third-highest on the team this season behind Morgan Hentz's and Amelia Smith's 18 wins and Courtney Bowen's and Kate Formico's 13 wins.
 


ALL-CONFERENCE CARDINAL
Sophomore Kathryn Plummer earned her second straight first-team All-Pac-12 selection, while junior Courtney Bowen and sophomore Morgan Hentz were named to the second team. Standout freshman Sunny Villapando was named to the conference's All-Freshman team.
 
The honor was the first Pac-12 Beach Volleyball All-Conference nod for Courtney Bowen, who amassed a 23-7 record on the season playing with both Kate Formico and Sunny Villapando. Morgan Hentz, a first-team All-American libero on Stanford's indoor team, earned her first beach volleyball All-Conference honor in today's announcement. She played the entire season with freshman partner Amelia Smith in which the pair compiled an 18-12 record.
 
CARDINAL IN THE CLASSROOM
Stanford placed seven student-athletes on the Pac-12 All-Academic team this season. Sophomores Caitlin Keefe, Kat Anderson and Shannon Richardson led the Cardinal as first-team selections, while Courtney Bowen and Morgan Hentz picked up second-team honors. Catherine Raquel and Payton Chang rounded out the academic honors with Honorable Mention nods. Richardson's 3.95 GPA was the highest among the Cardinal honorees.
 
BEACHBLOG
Senior Catherine Raquel documented the 2018 season in periodic blogs throughout the season, covering team activities on and off the beach and providing insight into her experience as a Stanford student-athlete.Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5 • Part 6 • Part 7