Stanford women's volleyball is ready to get started. The Cardinal added six freshman to an already talented team, and come into early-season tournaments as the No. 13 team in D1 women's volleyball according to preseason D1 volleyball rankings by BennettRank.
We talked to head coach John Dunning about his team as the new season approaches. Check out his extremely entertaining answers below. (Seriously, one of the best interviews of the offseason.)
Photo courtesy of Stanford Athletics
HERO: Which players will log significant minutes for your team this year?
Coach Dunning: “I could give you the lineup we used in a drill in practice today, but tomorrow it will be different. And, the next day it would also be different. We are trying to experiment and see all of the different ways that we can play. We won’t know for a while how our puzzle fits together the best. That will be one of the fun things about this season.”
HERO: What will be the biggest difference between this year's team and last year's team?
Dunning: “My gut feeling right now is that every team has about ‘this’ much pile of talent. It is like a pulsing heart almost. It can grow by how you interact. Coaches get a feeling on how people are going to interact and whether the pile is going to grow a lot, pulse and get bigger. My feeling on this group of people, coaches and players, is that we are going to grow a lot. The pile will get a lot bigger. I’d be shocked if it doesn’t, and that is just my experience. Teams are different. My instinct says, ‘I can’t wait to watch it grow.’ ”
HERO: Which newcomer(s) do you think will make the biggest impact for your team this season?
Dunning: “I am impressed with all six of them are good. Some are a bit better than I thought they were, too. I’ve watched them a lot, but sometimes people rise up when they get in the mix of having to rise up. They bring some different things to the team. You are not going to find anyone in the gym that is going to hustle and more unselfishly go for balls than Caitlin Keefe. You better not be daydreaming or she is going to run into you. She is going for it. That kind of thing helps the team. They are all good. All 10 of the returners know that those six are bringing it, and that’s cool.”
HERO: Is there one game you have circled on your calendar as your "Game of the Year"?
Dunning: “We have a lot of great teams in the conference that are good every year. I’m assuming they will be good again this season, even with having to replace players that have left. Washington, USC, UCLA, they are always right up there. I think our conference is good and I think we have our hands full because I think the Big Ten is really good too. Both are tough, competitive leagues.”
HERO: Is there anything else you want fans to know about your team?
Dunning: “I think it [this season] is going to be fun. We are going to have a very different style. Since Inky’s class [last year’s seniors] got to Stanford, we have had a way about us. People will probably be shocked by how dramatically different the picture of us will be this year. One of the key things is that it doesn’t have to be a way. We have some depth as long as we stay healthy. We have some different ways the puzzle can fit together, which it kind of hasn’t been that way in our program for a while.”
