It’s always tough to lose the championship game. That feeling of coming so far but not quite far enough has been all too familiar lately for the Stanford women’s volleyball team. In 2006, the Cardinal fell to Nebraska in the NCAA final. Last year Stanford fought its way back to the championship game, where the team dug its way out of a 2-0 deficit against Penn State, only to lose in five sets.

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Sophomore Alix Klineman is a key returning member of the Cardinal squad that has finished second in the nation in each of the last two years. Klineman, along with rising seniors Foluke Akinradewo and Cynthia Barboza, should form a terrific trio of returning All-American hitters for the Cardinal in 2008. #gallery http://daily.stanford.org/image/full/9403
Stanford Daily File Photo

Sophomore Alix Klineman is a key returning member of the Cardinal squad that has finished second in the nation in each of the last two years. Klineman, along with rising seniors Foluke Akinradewo and Cynthia Barboza, should form a terrific trio of returning All-American hitters for the Cardinal in 2008.

The Cardinal will embark on the 2008 season with those devastating losses in the past, but undoubtedly lingering in the minds of the team’s returning players.

“Life’s too short to let [the losses] bother you,” head coach John Dunning said. “But I definitely think it motivates them.”

The No. 2 Cardinal begins its season tomorrow and Dunning hasn’t provided the team with a schedule full of cupcake opponents to boost their confidence. The team will head to Omaha, Neb. to start the season in the Runza/AVCA Showcase at the Quest Center. After Stanford plays No. 7 Nebraska in front of a partisan-Husker crowd on Friday, the squad will meet No. 3 Texas in its second match on Sunday. USC rounds out the Showcase’s field, but the two Pac-10 Conference powers will not meet.

The key to Stanford’s success this year will be its group of returning All-American hitters: rising seniors Foluke Akinradewo and Cynthia Barboza and rising sophomore Alix Klineman. Akinradewo won the AVCA National Player of the Year last season and has been selected as a captain by the coaches heading into the 2008 campaign. Klineman, standing at 6-foot-4, was the Pac-10 Freshman of the year and led the team with an average of 4.12 kills per game.

All three All-American hitters spent the offseason training with the world’s best players as part of the U.S. National Training Team. Dunning doesn’t mind that his three stars missed working out with the team because “their confidence level is in a new world.”

“It’s really amazing how much they mature in that situation,” he said.

Also, Cardinal fans need not worry about Klineman’s sore shoulder. The U.S. National Team had her avoid hitting for two months and the results have been superb. All signs indicate that she will be 100 percent for the start of the season.

Beyond the stars, Stanford returns 11 players and six members of last year’s starting rotation. The squad is teeming with playoff experience, as seven Cardinal veterans have been to the Final Four twice.

Dunning, one of the winningest coaches in NCAA history, recruited a solid class to add to the mix and has been impressed with the contributions of the freshmen during fall camp. Jessica Walker, a 6-1 middle blocker, is widely considered to be the gem of the class and was highly recruited out of Booker T. Washington High School in Houston.

Also new to the game are a few significant rule changes that were made over the summer. In following international standards, NCAA games will now be played to 25 instead of 30 points. The effect on strategy is significant, Dunning admitted, adding that “a quick start is huge now and there [will be] a lot less time to play through things.” Games will be shorter and coaches can only make 12 substitutions, compared with 15 last year.

The Cardinal will fly from Omaha to play Central Florida on Sept. 2, where a new gym is being opened. The team will finish its road trip in Missouri at the St. Louis Invitational on Sept 5 and 6.

After staying in California for the rest of the month, Stanford will enter Pac-10 competition that is as tough as ever. Six teams in the conference are ranked in the top 10 nationally.

Dunning said that his early season goals are for the team to “enjoy the moment and develop a group spirit.” Come December, that could be the difference between going home losers and bringing Stanford’s seventh women’s volleyball national championship back to the Farm.