Kipp, Baird, Miner lead deep, talented Stanford

Stanford has a ton of talented depth.

But don’t expect to see a lot of players on the floor when the Cardinal travels to Nashville to play Lipscomb on Friday and Tennessee State to open the NCAA women’s volleyball season.

No, the plan right now, Coach Kevin Hambly said, is for Stanford to use seven players.

And, “If someone struggles we have a lot of pretty good DS’s to help us out,” said Hambly, who is starting his sixth season on The Farm.

Washington was picked by Pac-12 coaches to repeat as champion and received eight first-place votes in their preseason poll. Stanford was second and had two first-place votes, and the next two teams, UCLA and Oregon, had a vote each.

Few teams in the nation will put forth a starting lineup as imposing as Stanford, a team bolstered by an experienced roster complemented by an interesting group of newcomers.

Start with national player-of-the-year candidate Kendall Kipp, a 6-foot-5 senior right side from Newport Beach who was one of three Stanford players on the all-Pac-12 team. Also back are 6-3 junior outside Caitie Baird and 6-foot sophomore setter Kami Miner.

Kipp, a VolleyballMag.com second-team All-American last season, was second to Baird with 397 kills (3.85/set), tied with Baird for the team lead with 31 aces, and was third with 99 blocks.

“I feel like we’ve made so much progress since last season, especially since the COVID season,” Kipp said. “Its really cool to see our progress and how hard everyone has worked and see all that coming together, finally.”

Baird, from Indianapolis, led the team with 479 kills (4.24/set), was fourth in blocks with 62 (10 solo) and was second only to libero Elena Oglivie with 243 digs. She, too, was a VBM second-team All-American.

“She’s got all the shots,” Hambly said.

Miner, a VBM fourth-teamer and national freshman-of-the-year finalist, was the Pac-12 freshman of the year. She’s from Redondo Beach and before college was known more as the daughter of former USC great and NBA standout Harold Miner. Last season, Miner averaged 11.51 assists — seventh in the NCAA — 2.32 digs and had 48 blocks.

“She’s a national-team type of kid,” Hambly said. “She’s really physical, really athletic, strong, she’s got the ability to be very, very good.”

Also back are 6-2 junior middle McKenna Vicini and 6-6 sophomore…