Preview: No. 6 Stanford Women's Volleyball to face No. 16 Florida in AVCA First Serve Showcase
On Friday at 6:00 PM PT on FOX, No. 6 Stanford women’s volleyball will face No. 16 Florida in Lincoln, Nebraska as part of the AVCA First Serve Showcase. This will be the regular season opener for both programs.
READ: Five questions going into the 2025 Stanford Women’s Volleyball season
On Florida: The Gators are coming off a season in which they went 23-8 overall and 11-5 in the SEC, losing to Stanford 3-1 in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament. For the first time in 34 seasons, Mary Wise will not be the head coach of the Gators as she has retired. Ryan Theis is their new head coach, coming over from Marquette. Theis led the Golden Eagles to 10 NCAA tournament appearances, so he’s coming over with a lot of experience. Still, he has some big shoes to fill given the household name that Wise is.
All the top players for the Gators from last year have either graduated or transferred out. Sophomore Kennedy Martin (now a junior) who led the team with 5.57 kills per set transferred to Penn State, so this really is a different looking Gators team from what Stanford saw a year ago.
One constant from last year who will need to step up for the Gators is senior middle blocker Amaya Thomas. She averaged 1.21 kills per set last season. With so many new faces and new people having to step up, the Gators are really going to need to lean on her for her experience within the program.
Keys to the match: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is get Elia Rubin and Jordyn Harvey going. With Stanford integrating a lot of new pieces as well, they’re going to need to rely on their star players a bit more until everyone gets settled in. If those two players have a big performance, that would really help Stanford settle into the match.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is maintain their strong service pressure. That’s been a strength of theirs over the years. If Stanford can apply quality service pressure on the Gators and get into a good flow on that end, that would be big. Especially since the Gators are incorporating a lot of new pieces. Strong service pressure is a great way to fluster teams that are still trying to figure out their identity.
Finally, Stanford needs to make sure they are the team that comes out with more energy and confidence. So much of this is mental and both teams have a lot to figure out about themselves. It can be easy for teams like this to play tentative and get off to a slow start. If Stanford can play like the more assertive, confident team, I like their chances of winning.
Prediction: I gotta roll with Stanford to win in four sets. While both teams have different looking teams than last season, Stanford at least has some key returners in Harvey and Rubin. Stanford should be the more in-sync team and on top of that, they’re the higher ranked team.
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