HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Stanford beach volleyball players fifth-year Charlie Ekstrom, junior Kate Reilly, junior Xolani Hodel, and senior Maddi Kriz competed at the 2022 Women's Pairs National Championship at the AVCA Fall National Championship Nov. 4-6. The duo of Ekstrom/Reilly brought home a sixth-place finish while Hodel/Kriz placed 17th overall.
Friday saw both pairs take on pool play. To start the day, both pairs earned wins, as Hodel/Kriz defeated Georgia State's Bordis/Kuck 21-18, 21-19 while Ekstrom/Reilly topped Stetson's Bramante/Gauthier 21-17, 21-15. After a forfeit win over FAU, Ekstrom/Reilly closed out their day with a 21-19, 21-14 topping of Arizona's Russel/Shannon to earn the top finish in pool 10. Hodel/Kriz dropped both of their other pool play matches, as they fell to FCGU's Brewer/Johnson 21-16, 21-17 and were topped by eventual second-place finishers TCU's Mactavish/ Vergara 21-18, 21-13.
Saturday began with both pairs playing matches in the champions bracket. Ekstrom/Reilly earned a first-round bye and then topped LMU's Ramirez/Thorup 21-9, 21-19. After topping GCU's Morin/Roskic 21-19, 21-19, the duo recorded its first loss of the tournament, falling to Washington's Loreen/Robinson in a three-set defeat 17-21, 21-17, 15-7. With the loss, the pair moved into the fifth-place bracket for play on Sunday.
Hodel/Kriz won their first match of the day, a first-round champions bracket 21-19, 21-19 win over Ferraris/Namike from Stetson University. They then fell to LSU's Bracken/Seits in a three-set battle, 17-21, 21-14, 21-19 and moved into the 17th-place bracket. The pair closed out Saturday with a three-set victory over LMU's Firnett/Prihti 13-21, 21-11, 17-15 and moved onto the second round of the battle for 17th overall.
Sunday saw Ekstrom/Reilly advance to the fifth-place bracket finals after a forfeit from USC's Shields/White. The duo ended play in Huntsville with a tough-fought three-set battle with Georgia State's Ferary/Ferary, earning a sixth-place overall finish with the 23-21, 17-21, 15-11 loss to the Panthers.
Hodel/Kriz finished their play in Huntsville with three wins Sunday, first topping Texas A&M Corpus Christi's Lewis/Poletti-Corrales 26-24, 21-17 and Long Beach State's Gementera/Hagenah 21-19, 21-19. In the 17th-place bracket finals, Hodel/Kriz fell in the first set against LMU's Ramirez/Thorup, but stormed back in sets two and three for the victory and the top finish in the bracket.
Play in Huntsville concluded Stanford Beach Volleyball's fall action. The Cardinal's 2023 schedule will be released in the coming weeks.
