Stanford University’s women’s volleyball team will begin its 2025 season at the AVCA First Serve Showcase in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Cardinal, ranked No. 6 nationally, is scheduled to play No. 16 Florida on Friday and No. 1 Nebraska on Sunday. Both matches will be broadcast nationally, with the Florida match airing on FOX and the Nebraska match on ESPN.
The start date of August 22 ties the earliest season opener in program history, a mark last set in 1997.
In past encounters, Stanford holds a 10-6 record against Florida, including a four-set victory during the 2024 Louisville Regional semifinal where outside hitter Ipar Kurt recorded 17 kills and Elia Rubin added 16 kills and 13 digs. Against Nebraska, Stanford leads the series narrowly at 10-8 but has lost its last two meetings with the Huskers; their most recent win over Nebraska came in Lincoln in 2022.
Stanford ended its previous season with a record of 28-5 overall and tied for second place in its first year competing in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) with a conference mark of 17-3. The team reached its 43rd NCAA postseason appearance out of the last 44 seasons and advanced to an NCAA regional final for the eighteenth time since tournament expansion in 1998.
This season’s schedule includes eleven matches against teams ranked in the AVCA Preseason Poll. Five of those opponents are currently ranked among the top five: Nebraska (No.1), Texas (No.5), Pittsburgh (No.3), Louisville (No.4), and SMU (No.10). Other notable nonconference opponents include Missouri (No.17) and UCLA (No.18). In ACC play, Stanford will also face Georgia Tech twice.
In preseason voting by league coaches for its second ACC campaign, Stanford was picked to finish third. Historically, combining Pac-12 records with current conference results, Stanford has placed among the top four teams in league play for thirty-nine out of forty seasons and finished within the top three thirty-seven times.
Stanford’s women’s volleyball program leads all others nationally with nine NCAA titles, more tournament victories than any other school at one hundred forty-one wins, twenty-three Final Four appearances, seventeen national championship match berths, and participation in forty-three of forty-four NCAA tournaments held.
Senior outside hitter Elia Rubin returns as Stanford’s only All-American from last year’s roster after becoming just the twenty-third player in program history to reach one thousand career kills—a milestone achieved against SMU last season—and leading her team as well as ranking highly within ACC statistical categories for points per set and kills per set.
At Maples Pavilion under head coach Kevin Hambly’s eight-year tenure, Stanford has posted a home record of one hundred wins to twelve losses—including going undefeated at home during their most recent campaign—while winning thirty-two consecutive home games early under his leadership.
Hambly became only the seventh Division I women’s volleyball coach to lead a school to consecutive NCAA championships and has accumulated a coaching record of one hundred ninety-nine wins against forty-two losses at Stanford while mentoring fourteen AVCA All-Americans earning twenty-nine awards along with seven Academic All-Americans collecting nine honors.
Prior to joining Stanford, Hambly coached Illinois where he developed twelve AVCA All-Americans who received nineteen total honors; he now counts twenty-six players earning forty-eight awards across his coaching career so far.
