[M T]

I agree with your assessment MSG.  However replacing three fifth year starters (Kipp, Baird, Vicini) with a true freshman and two players with little court experience will be challenging.  Playing Wisconsin the first weekend could be a brutal wake-up call about how much the team will need to improve.  I won't let a loss at the start of the season keep me from being optimistic.

AVCA putting Stanford at #5 in the pre-season poll is very generous IMO based on what they lost to graduation.  Stanford always seems to get the benefit of the doubt in WVB national polls.

Of course every school loses a number of their players each year.  We lost those 3 great players.
But, why should that make us drop more than, say, Wisconsin.  Wisconsin had 10 players play in 100-120 sets, and lost 4 of them.  They lost 2 of their 6 players with the most points, and their two top setters.

Maybe you've looked deeper than just how much we lost, but I think you're hand-wringing prematurely.

[M T]

I agree with your assessment MSG.  However replacing three fifth year starters (Kipp, Baird, Vicini) with a true freshman and two players with little court experience will be challenging.  Playing Wisconsin the first weekend could be a brutal wake-up call about how much the team will need to improve.  I won't let a loss at the start of the season keep me from being optimistic.

AVCA putting Stanford at #5 in the pre-season poll is very generous IMO based on what they lost to graduation.  Stanford always seems to get the benefit of the doubt in WVB national polls.

Of course every school loses a number of their players each year.  We lost those 3 great players.
But, why should that make us drop more than, say, Wisconsin.  Wisconsin had 10 players play in 100-120 sets, and lost 4 of them.  They lost 2 of their 6 players with the most points, and their two top setters.

Maybe you've looked deeper than just how much we lost, but I think you're hand-wringing prematurely.