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The team that was one match away from winning the national championship last year will play three non-conference matches against emerging NCAA Division I-II programs next season.
Stanford as part of unveiling its 2015 regular season announced that it will have a home match versus Holy Names and play a home-and-home series against Concordia-Irvine.
Both Holy Names and Concordia-Irvine are in the process of becoming NCAA Division II members. Holy Names is entering the final year of its three-year transition to NCAA Division II, while Concordia-Irvine announced this summer that it would begin the multiple-year move from NAIA to NCAA Division II.
The Cardinal finished last season as one of the two at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament and reached the NCAA championship match. In addition, Stanford has four starters returning from last year’s team, including All-American setter James Shaw who was a finalist for the 2014 Lloy Ball Award.
Concordia-Irvine also was the runner-up to a national title last season as it lost to Park in the NAIA national championship match.
This will be the first time in Stanford’s program history that it will play non-conference matches against Concordia-Irvine and Holy Names.
These three matches will be part of the Cardinals’ seven-match non-conference schedule for the upcoming season. It will also be the most non-conference matches for any MPSF team next season, and all the non-conference matches will take place in the season’s first eight weeks.
Among the other non-conference opponents Stanford will play next season includes the defending-NCAA champion Loyola, Lewis, UC Santa Cruz and Hope International.