No. 3 Cardinal Set for Penultimate Week of Regular-Season ActionNo. 3 Cardinal Set for Penultimate Week of Regular-Season Action
Beach Volleyball

No. 3 Cardinal Set for Penultimate Week of Regular-Season Action

Notables

  • No. 3 Stanford kicks off its second-to-last week of regular-season action Wednesday, taking on San Francisco at the Stanford Beach Volleyball Stadium for a midweek matchup, before welcoming No. 17 Arizona and Pacific to The Farm Friday for two pre-weekend matches. 
  • All three matches will be streamed on Stanford Live Stream and will have live stats available at the links below. 
  • The Cardinal comes off a 3-1 trip to the 2024 Pac-12 North Invitational April 5-6, securing the program's fourth consecutive 20+ win season.  Then-No. 2 Stanford split its first day of action, falling to No. 3 USC 4-1 while besting No. 13 Washington by the same score. After a split day to open play, the Cardinal swept day two with 5-0 victories over Utah and No. 18 Arizona. Through 24 matches in the 2024 season, the Cardinal holds a 21-3 record with all losses coming to top-10 programs, and two of the three coming from top-three ranked programs. Stanford now has its fourth straight 20+ win season, winning 97 matches since the start of the 2021 season. 
  • Freshman Chloe Hoffman and sophomore Kelly Belardi are unstoppable as a duo, going 12-0 since being paired together back on March 15. They have accrued wins over three top-five programs and earned the only point in Stanford's 4-1 loss to No. 3 USC on Friday at the Pac-12 North Invitational. 
  • The pairing of junior Taylor Wilson and freshman Ruby Sorra has proven to be a great one for the Cardinal. The duo spent time training in the fall for the U21 World Championships (Taylor, for Team USA and Ruby, for Team Canada) and found a rhythm playing together. They are the Cardinal's winningest pair (total number of wins), sitting at 18-6 with all losses coming to top-15 ranked pairs. 
  • The Cardinal has spent the entire 2024 season as one of the top three teams in the nation according to the AVCA Coaches Poll. This is largely in part to its leadership by three of the winningest players in program history— Kate Reilly (first, 88 wins), Maya Harvey (third, 80 wins), and Xolani Hodel (fourth, 79 wins). All three 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 three consecutive appearances to the NCAA Championships. 
  • The Cardinal’s lineup also boasts four powerhouse first-year players— Ruby Sorra, Clara Stowell, Brooke Rockwell, and Chloe Hoffman— three of whom (Sorra, Rockwell, Hoffman) have seen playing time in every single match this season. 
  • More than half of Stanford’s pairs in all matches this season have come from players in their first or second years playing collegiate beach volleyball. In fact, there is not a single pair that has played this season for the Cardinal that has not featured an underclassman as one of its two members.