The CardBoard
2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - Printable Version

+- The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board)
+-- Forum: C-House! (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-4.html)
+--- Forum: The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-5.html)
+--- Thread: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball (/thread-26078.html)


2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - Mick - 02-11-2026

This is a tale of two seasons.

On the one hand, Stanford is 3-6, with wins over lightly regarded UC-Merced (3-3) and Jessup (out of Rocklin, 2-4) and a 3-2 win over ##17 UC-Santa Barbara. UCSB plays in the Big West, following the Big Split of an unwieldy 11-team MPSF from a few years ago. Half stayed in the MPSF, half went to the Big West (Northridge, Hawaii, Irvine, Santa Barbara, Long Beach State and UC San Diego).

On the other hand,Jessup and UC Merced are first year participants in the MPSF, Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, along with Menlo, Concordia and Vanguard...and stalwart holdovers, UCLA, USC, Pepperdine and BYU. Ten teams. 

And Stanford is in second place in the conference with a 2-0 record. 

Here's the MPSF standings:

UCLA (3-0, 10-0
Stanford (2-0, 3-6)
USC (1-0, 8-0)
Pepperdine (1-0, 6-2)
BYU (0-0, 9-2)
Menlo (0-0, 0-5)
UC Merced (0-1, 3-3)
Jessup, (0-1, 2-4)
Concordia (0-1, 3-6)
Vanguard (0-4, 3-7)

So, you're reading it right. There are three very strong teams: UCLA, USC, BYU. All the rest are weak, including Stanford.

Stanford lost to Lewis, Loyola-Chicago, Ball State, UCSB, and twice to #5 UC Irvine (1-3 and 2-3).

This Friday and Saturday, Stanford plays #3 Hawaii at Maples at 6 p.m. both games. Hawaii is 10-1, with a split against Loyola (3-0, 1-3) in Hawaii. Hawaii just beat #14 Penn State in State College twice. Hawaii will be the best match at Maples until #1 UCLA visits on March 27-28

Current MVB poll (as of Monday)

1. UCLA
2. Long Beach State
3. Hawaii
4. USC
5. UC-Irvine
6. Pepperdine
7. BYU
8. Loyola Chicago
9. Ball State
10. UC-San Diego
11. Ohio State
12. McKendree
13. Lindenwood
14. Lewis
15. Penn State
16. UCSB
17. CSU Northridge
18. Stanford
19. Lincoln Memorial
20. New Jersey Institute of Technology

Others receiving votes in order, Princeton, Purdue Fort Wayne, Concordia, Belmont Abbey, George Mason, Missouri S&T.

BTW, Stanford has a new men's volleyball coach, Matt Houlihan. He played at St. Francis and UOP. UOP is bringing back men's volleyball in 2027 and will play in the MPSF next year. Devin Young is their head coach, he served as assistant at BYU for eight years.

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - PalmTree - 02-12-2026

(02-11-2026, 11:09 PM)Mick Wrote:  BTW, Stanford has a new men's volleyball coach, Matt Houlihan. He played at St. Francis and UOP. UOP is bringing back men's volleyball in 2027 and will play in the MPSF next year. Devin Young is their head coach, he served as assistant at BYU for eight years.

Houlihan already worked with the team as a grad assistant for several years. I think he stepped away for a year or two to coach club ball so he should already be familiar with some of the players as well as with Kosty's system and game approach.

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - BostonCard - 02-13-2026

Not looking good against the Rainbow Warriors, Stanford is down a set and down 19-9 in the second.

BC

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - Nobadeer - 02-13-2026

I was at Maples. The good news is that admission is free and the match was over in about 75 minutes. The bad news is Hawaii is way taller than LSJU, very bouncy, and won pretty easily in straight sets. The other news is that I am reminded how different M VB is from W VB.

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - Mick - 02-14-2026

(02-13-2026, 09:26 PM)Nobadeer Wrote:  I was at Maples. The good news is that admission is free and the match was over in about 75 minutes. The bad news is Hawaii is way taller than LSJU, very bouncy, and won pretty easily in straight sets. The other news is that I am reminded how different M VB is from W VB.

Basically two different sports...similar dynamic in tennis.

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - Mick - 02-15-2026

Two matches against  Hawaii. Both  3-0 losses. Hawaii is 12-1. Stanford is 3-8.

The most points Stanford scored in a game during either match was 17. I don't remember any D1 team dominating another D1 team this badly. 

Best part? Good attendance. 1,355 on Friday, 1,560 yesterday.

Men's Volleyball vs Hawaii 2/13/2026 - Stanford Cardinal - Official Athletics Website

Men's Volleyball vs Hawaii 2/14/2026 - Stanford Cardinal - Official Athletics Website

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - Jamesy - 02-15-2026

Can someone with more insider knowledge than me explain why we have struggled in MVB for such a long time? I feel like a lot of the same advantages that the water polos and men's gymnastics have with very few teams across the country, small athlete pool, history of good teams at Stanford, etc, should apply to MVB but it doesn't. Are we not getting the recruits? Are the typical elite MVB HSers not academically minded like they are in the other sports I mentioned? Subpar coaching?

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - BobK - 02-15-2026

Maybe not a sport Stanford cares about. Bios haven’t been updated for several years

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - Mick - 02-15-2026

(02-15-2026, 10:42 AM)Jamesy Wrote:  Can someone with more insider knowledge than me explain why we have struggled in MVB for such a long time? I feel like a lot of the same advantages that the water polos and men's gymnastics have with very few teams across the country, small athlete pool, history of good teams at Stanford, etc, should apply to MVB but it doesn't. Are we not getting the recruits? Are the typical elite MVB HSers not academically minded like they are in the other sports I mentioned? Subpar coaching?

I think you have a number of challenges at work here:

First and foremost, I believe the elite VB players are not as intellectually gifted as in other non-revenue sports. I recall talking with the Stanford coach at JO's many years ago. He had a list of Volleyball Magazine's "Fab 50," the top 50 players in the nation. He had four players highlighted, and I asked if those were the players he really wanted...and he replied that those were the only four who could get admitted to Stanford. 

Second, there is a lot of competition for smart VB players. 15 years ago, when my son was being recruited, many top colleges were seeking gifted volleyball players, including Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, NYU, USC, and half a dozen UC's, including UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCI, UCSB and UCSC. Smart players work hard and succeed, and don't really have a professional VB option post-college. So they maximize their scholastic options. 

Third, Stanford is high-intensity. Between video, weights, chalk talk, practice and other obligations; a player will work 2x - 4x as much and as long as a player who attends universities with lower-level D1, D2, D3 or club programs. I talked to a setter at UC-Berkeley years ago who had been recruited at multiple high-level academic programs -- and he loved volleyball but only wanted to play it 10 hours a week...so he joined Berkeley's program.

Fourth...and I may get pilloried for this...Stanford plays within the rules. I strongly suspect that other programs do not, at times. Just my opinion. I won't accuse any specific program. But Lewis and Hawaii had to vacate championships in two consecutive years ('02 and '03), and BYU committed recruiting violations so egregious that they were dinged by the NCAA and all of their frosh class except one were not only returned to the applicant pool, they didn't even have to sit out the usual mandatory year (at the time). 

Fifth...I think there are two separate "pooling" phenomena at work here. Southern California and Hawaii are the hotbeds of volleyball. There have been 55 NCAA championships. Either Hawaii or a SoCal school (USC, UCLA, UCI, Pepperdine, LBSU, and even San Diego State) have won 43 of the 55 (Ohio State won three, Loyola of Chicago won two, Penn State won two, Stanford won two and BYU won three)

Sixth...yes, strong coaching matters. And it relates to "clustering." Long Beach State won three in a seven year period, 2018-2025. USC won all four of theirs between 1977 and 1990. UCLA alone has won 21 of the 55. Irvine won all four of theirs between 2007 and 2013 (John Speraw coach). Pepperdine's were spread between 1978 and 2005, but Marv Dunphy was coach for four of the five. All three of Ohio State's were between 2011 and 2017. Hawaii's two legitimate wins were in 2021 and 2022, Loyola's were in 2014 and 2015.

it's not horribly out of proportion. There's 31 D1 volleyball schools, Stanford has won two of the 55 national championships. Some very good traditional volleyball power schools (UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, Northridge, Ball State, Lewis) have never won the championship.

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - BobK - 02-15-2026

Maybe not a sport Stanford cares about. Bios haven’t been updated for several years

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - Nobadeer - 02-15-2026

Thanks Mick. I was at Maples for both the Hawaii matches. Attendance was indeed great, ~ 1/2 Hawaii fans, ~ 1/3 local high school kids/volleyball players, and the rest LSJU fans.

What has happened to the heralded LSJU sophomore class, which I think included several top 50 recruits (two years ago) and showed some promise early last season? Have they been injured, or otherwise just not yet realizing their potential? Some of the sophs played in the Friday match but don't think any of them saw the floor for the Saturday match.

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - Leftcoast - 02-16-2026

Didn’t we literally DISBAND our MVB team not so long ago?

That’s pretty easy to recruit against

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - Jamesy - 02-16-2026

(02-16-2026, 03:25 PM)Leftcoast Wrote:  Didn’t we literally DISBAND our MVB team not so long ago?

That’s pretty easy to recruit against

The decline started long before 2020.

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - BostonCard - 02-16-2026

I guess it depends on your time horizon, but we won a championship in 2010 and made it to the NCAA final in 2014, so it was about a 6 year decline.  But even before that, MVB had less success than the women’s team; only two national titles (1997 and 2010) and five final fours.

BC

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - Jamesy - 02-16-2026

(02-16-2026, 06:55 PM)BostonCard Wrote:  I guess it depends on your time horizon, but we won a championship in 2010 and made it to the NCAA final in 2014, so it was about a 6 year decline.  But even before that, MVB had less success than the women’s team; only two national titles (1997 and 2010) and five final fours.

BC

It was quite a decline after 2014. Haven't made the ncaa tournament since then and have struggled to make it to .500 most years. The fact that the team has had historic success, even if not the same level as the women's team, makes our current slump more difficult for me to comprehend. It's not like football where there are big NIL/money headwinds. I do appreciate the insights that have been posted here. Have those factors become more pronounced the past decade than historically?

RE: 2026 Stanford Men's Volleyball - Mick - 02-17-2026

Stanford's team in 2010 was 24-6 and opened the season by sweeping Hawaii, 3-0, 3-0. Great team, had a terrific oppo in Evan Romero, Spencer McLachlin and Brad Lawson at OH, middle Gus Ellis, and best of all, the Shoji brothers from Hawaii. Kawika (later U.S. national team setter) at setter, Erik at liberol. Lawson and Kawika were co-MVPs of the NCAA tourney, Romero and Erik also made all-tourney. MB Garrett Werner and Jason Palacios were very strong. As frosh, their team was 3-25. "Worst to First."

The 2014 team was similarly superb. Between those five years, 2010 - 2014, Stanford led all schools with at least threee players selected to the AVCA All-America first and second teams, including Senior OHs Brian Cook and Steve Irvin and soph James Shaw (son of Coach Don Shaw). MB Conrad Kaminski earned HM. Stanford had at least three All-America selections for five consecutive seasons. Grant Delgado was an underrated libero. He was Fab 50 and couldn't get on the court his first two years.

Stanford men's volleyball team has four All-Americans - Palo Alto Online

Those were the days...

Here's how tough it is for Stanford to recruit. Stanford has had 10 All Americans. One of them had the lowest SAT in the history of the program...and it was at the 82nd overall percentile. It is exceptionally difficult to get high quality men's volleyball players into Stanford.