Stanford Will Open NCAA Title Defense Against Long Beach State

The defending NCAA Champions Stanford will open their title defense on August 25th against Long Beach State at the LBSU tournament in southern California. That match will pit two of the winningnest programs in NCAA history – both of whom are in a state of transition after their legendary head coaches retired.

For the Cardinal, John Dunning retired after a 32-year career and was replaced by Illinois’ former head coach Kevin Hambly. Long Beach State’s chief, Brian Gimmillaro, also ended his 32-year career, giving way on Monday to new head coach Joy McKienzie-Fuerbringer.

Stanford’s second out-of-conference tournament will be in College Station, Texas, where they’ll play another national juggernaut Penn State as well as Texas A&M – who will try and bounce back from a 2016 season that fell short of expectations.

On September 8th, through the luck-of-the-draw, Stanford will play Tamas’ old squad Illinois at the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge in Champaign. That will be followed by another matchup with Penn State.

19 of Stanford’s matches will be televised – 17 on the Pac-12 Networks and 2 on ESPNU.

Stanford’s first appearance on the networks in 2017 will be its home opener against Pacific, slated for Friday, Sept. 15. Stanford’s match at Oregon on Oct. 6 and at home against Washington on Oct. 19 have been picked up by ESPNU. All but two conference matches (home versus Washington State on Oct. 21 and home against Oregon State on Nov. 3) will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.

Stanford won the program’s record-tying seventh NCAA championship in 2016, tying for the most women’s volleyball titles in the nation with Penn State. The Cardinal returns five starters, including AVCA National Freshman of the Year Kathryn Plummer and All-Americans Merete Lutz and Audriana Fitzmorris, from its championship squad.

See Stanford’s full 2017 schedule below.

2017 Schedule