Notables
- No. 9 Stanford makes its third consecutive appearance at the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship Friday, taking on No. 6 GCU in the first round of the national championship tournament at 12 pm PT (2 pm CT). The Cardinal's match against the 'Lopes will be televised on ESPNU and live stats will be available here (links coming soon).
- All matches throughout the NCAA Championship will be broadcast on the ESPN Networks. Information regarding the championship can be found at the 2023 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship webpage.
- The Cardinal comes off a third-place finish at the 2023 Pac-12 Championship, falling to No. 9 California in the winners bracket final and eventual winner No. 1 UCLA in the contenders bracket final. In the conference championship tournament, Stanford topped No.1 UCLA in the winners bracket semifinals, besting the Bruins for the first time in program history.
- Stanford and Grand Canyon met in the Cardinal's final weekend of regular-season action, April 21. The Cardinal earned a 4-1 victory over the 'Lopes, starting a streak of top-10 upsets that began with a win over No. 5 LSU in Baton Rouge, La. April 14.
- No. 1 pair Xolani Hodel and Maddi Kriz were named AVCA Second Team All-Americans Thursday morning. Hodel is now a three-time AVCA All-American while her partner, Kriz, earns all-america honors for the first time in her career.
- Freshman pair Kelly Belardi and Ashley Vincent broke the program record for wins as a pair in a single season Saturday, April 8 with their come-from-behind victory over No. 9 California on court four. The freshman duo now owns 27 victories through 34 collegiate matches played together. As a duo, they sit third on the career wins as a pair list (three away from the top of the list). Both were named to the 2023 Pac-12 All-Freshman Team Thursday morning.
- Junior Xolani Hodel, senior Maddi Kriz, and fifth-year Charlie Ekstrom were named to All-Pac-12 Conference Thursday morning. Hodel was named to the All-Pac-12 First Team for the third consecutive season while her partner Kriz earned first team honors for the first time. Ekstrom recorded her fourth consecutive nod to the second team. Alongside Belardi and Vincent's freshman team honors, the Cardinal had five members of its squad honored by the conference for the third straight season.
- Freshman Ashley Vincent leads the team in victories, currently owning 31 victories in 38 matches played. The Atlanta, Ga. native set a new program record for wins in a single season in Louisiana when she topped both North Florida and LSU. She leads a group of eight Cardinal with 20-or-more wins this season, including partner Kelly Belardi (27), Maddi Kriz and Kate Reilly (24), Charlie Ekstrom (23), Emmy Sharp (22), Maya Harvey (21), and Xolani Hodel (20).
- When looking at Stanford's Career Wins (individual) records, six current Stanford players sit in the top 10-- Charlie Ekstrom (1st, 82 wins), Maddi Kriz (2nd, 73 wins), Kate Reilly (4th, 67 wins), Maya Harvey, Xolani Hodel, and Emmy Sharp (tied for fifth, 64 wins). Four (Reilly, Sharp, Hodel, Harvey) are members of the 2019-20 signing class (first played during the 2021 season), largely regarded then as the most decorated incoming freshman class to come to The Farm since the inception of the program. Since 2021, the Cardinal has recorded three back-to-back-to-back 20+ win seasons (each growing the program's record win total for a single season) and now three consecutive appearances to the NCAA Championships.
- Stanford's 2023 squad has continued its success from the previous season, breaking many of the program records set in '22.
- Ashley Vincent topped sophomore Kate Reilly's record set in 2022 (April 24, 2022) for individual wins in a season, topping North Florida for her 25th individual victory and LSU for her 26th.
- The Cardinal set a new record for program wins in a season in its final action of the 2023 regular season and now sits at 28 victories (the previous record was 24, set in 2022).