Before it gets too late, I do want to share some thoughts/reflections on the 2022 Stanford women’s volleyball season as well as look ahead to the 2023 season. Stanford had a really strong season, going 27-5 overall and finishing 19-1 in the Pac-12 before eventually falling to San Diego in five sets in the regional final. At the same time, failing to reach the Final Four is a major disappointment for them, especially when you consider the fact they were a #1 seed. This is a program that has very high expectations and head coach Kevin Hambly is on the record as saying that any season you don’t win a national title, it’s a disappointment.
Looking ahead to next season, the goal for this Stanford team is to win a national title. Considering their core rotation is all coming back, there’s really no reason for them to not have that as a realistic and attainable goal. Especially when you consider they have a fantastic incoming recruiting class consisting of 5-star outside hitter Julia Blyashov, 5-star outside hitter Jordyn Harvey, defensive specialist/libero Koko Kirsch, and Turkish outside hitter İpar Kurt, a 5-star talent. Blyashov and Kurt in particular are supposed to be phenomenal talents, though like Blyashov, Harvey has been rated a 5-star by vballrecruiter.com.
Stanford has plenty of depth at outside hitter, so it’ll be interesting to see if Hambly maybe moves one of the incoming freshmen into a middle blocker position like he did with Sami Francis. That’s a position where they could use more depth given the fact that Francis missed a good chunk of time down the stretch of the season. Had she stayed healthy all season long, that in and of itself may have made the difference between whether or not they made a Final Four run. And thus, her health could also make the difference again in 2023, so making sure they keep her healthy for the playoffs and have more depth at middle blocker will be key.
If there’s one returning player who I think will be particularly interesting to track, it’s outside hitter Elia Rubin. Just because she played such a big role as a freshman last year and really did a great job of taking some pressure off Caitie Baird and Kendall Kipp. If she takes a major step forward as a sophomore, that should put a lot of fear into the eyes of opposing teams. As a whole, the 2023 season should be very exciting for Stanford. All the rotation players are back and they’re adding a really talented recruiting class to the mix. It should be fun to see what kind of rotations Kevin Hambly uses and how he puts that extra depth to their advantage.
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