Notables
- No. 7 Stanford hosts its first home matches of the season Wednesday, welcoming Portland and Saint Mary's to The Farm for a midweek matinee matchups. The Cardinal will take on the Pilots at 12 p.m. and the Gaels at 2 p.m. Both Stanford matches will be live streamed, with separate streams for Court 1, Court 2, and Court 3. Live scoring is available here (Portland) and here (Saint Mary's). The two opponents will end the day with a neutral site match, with live scoring available here (no live stream).
- The Cardinal opened its season in Hawaii, earning second place at the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic hosted at Queen's Beach in Waikiki, Hawaii. Throughout the three-day tournament, the Cardinal only recorded losses to No. 1/1 UCLA, topping No. 9/10 Hawai'i twice, and both Stephen F. Austin and Saint Mary's once. At the conclusion of the tournament, fifth-year Charlie Ekstrom earned the tournament's best blocker award.
- Freshman pair Kelly Belardi and Ashley Vincent kicked their season off with a bang in the Aloha State, leaving with an unblemished record of 6-0 on Court Four. The duo secured four top-10 wins in its first six matches, including two victories over No. 1 UCLA's No. 4 pair.
- Wins by senior Maddi Kriz and Charlie Ekstrom in the opening match of last weekend's action in the Aloha State just meant more. In the Cardinal's Thursday match against Stephen F. Austin, Kriz marked her 50th career victory in a Stanford uniform while Ekstrom notched her 60th career victory, then tying her second-most by any Cardinal player in program history. Ekstrom's victory later that day over No. 9/10 Hawaii moved her into sole possession of the second-most victories by a Stanford Beach Volleyball player, and she is just six wins away from setting a new program record.
- Coach Andrew Fuller heads into Wednesday's matches with 98 career wins at the helm of the Stanford program, two away from 100 career wins as a head coach. If he accomplishes the feat Wednesday, he will become the first Stanford Beach Volleyball coach in program history to win 100 matches.
- Stanford comes off a historic 2022 season, earning a bid to the NCAA Championships for just the second time in program history. The Cardinal saw multiple records broken in its last campaign, including:
- Against Grand Canyon, April 24, 2022: No. 1 pair Xolani Hodel and Kate Reilly earned their 29th win as a pair and became the winningest pair in program history (as of May 2, 2022, the pair currently owns 30 wins).
- Against Saint Mary’s, April 24, 2022: Sophomore Kate Reilly earned her 24th individual win of the 2022 season, a new program best for wins in a single season.
- Against Arizona State, April 27, 2022:
- Stanford earns its 24th program win, the most in a single season.
- Sophomore Maya Harvey earns her 24th win of the 2022 season, matching Reilly’s program record for single-season individual wins set on April 24, 2022.
- Next up, Stanford heads to Los Angeles (USC and UCLA hosts) for the Pac-12 South Tournament, meeting Pac-12 opponents No. 16 Washington, No. 4 USC, RV Arizona State, and Utah March 4-5 with two matches televised by the Pac-12 Networks.