Stanford's roster is made up 11 players from the indoor volleyball squad -- Lydia Bai, Carly Wopat, Morgan Boukather, Rachel Williams, Kyle Gilbert, Inky Ajanaku, Brittany Howard, Mary Ellen Luck, Madi Bugg, Jordan Burgess and Megan McGehee -- and will be coached by veteran John Dunning and assisted by Denise Corlett.

Stanford and Santa Clara will present five doubles teams, needing a minimum of three doubles wins to capture the match. Each doubles team will play a best-of-three match with the first two sets played to 21 points and, if necessary, a third set played to 15 points.

Stanford enters its first season of sand volleyball ranked 10th in the preseason American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) poll. Pepperdine, Long Beach State, USC, Florida State and Hawaii make up the top five.

The Stanford women's sand volleyball team will open its inaugural season on Tuesday against Santa Clara. The match will be played at the ACSR Sand Volleyball Courts, located between Taube South and the Graduate School of Business, at 3:30 p.m.

Munoz helped lead a strong defensive effort that surrendered just 13 goals in its two road victories at No. 19 James Madison and Vanderbilt. The junior played all 120 minutes and made 15 saves, earning a 6.50 goals-against average and a .536 save percentage.

Stanford goalkeeper Lyndsey Munoz was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Defensive Player of the Week for the week of March 25-31, as announced by the conference Monday.

The Cardinal will travel this weekend to the Sacramento State tournament on Sunday. Stanford will face the host Hornets at moon and St. Mary's at 3 p.m. Stanford then will play its five remaining matches at home, starting on Tuesday, April 9 against Santa Clara.

Sand volleyball was added to the list of NCAA emerging sports for women prior to the 2011-12 academic year. Fifteen schools competed in sand volleyball during the spring of 2012 and 15 more, including Stanford, have added the sport in 2013.

Stanford will return to The Farm for its lone home game in a six-game stretch as it takes on Fresno State on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium.

This is Munoz's and Stanford's first MPSF Defensive Player of the Week honor this season. Munoz was named to the Tewaaraton Award watch list -- given to the nation's top collegiate lacrosse player at the end of the season - earlier this year.

With Stanford trailing 7-5 at halftime against James Madison, Munoz allowed just two goals in the second half to lead Stanford to a 14-9 comeback victory.

Munoz allowed just two goals in three of the four halves in the two games. She held Vanderbilt to two goals per half, and her four goals-against in a single game ranks ninth all-time among Stanford goalkeepers.

Steffens and the Cardinal (22-1) return to Avery Aquatic Center this week, hosting No. 4 UCLA Saturday at 1 p.m. for the team's regular-season home finale.

Four days later in Honolulu, the 2012 U.S. Olympian scored three times in Friday's 12-3 win over UCSB then netted four in Sunday night's 17-5 win over host Hawaii.

Steffens netted 12 goals as the Cardinal registered wins over Hartwick, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, San Diego State and Hawaii. She opened the week with three goals in Stanford's 13-4 win over Hartwick last Monday in Tempe, Ariz.

Freshman Maggie Steffens earned her second straight KAP 7 MPSF Newcomer of the Week nod Monday after helping No. 2 Stanford to five wins last week.

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Stanford women open season in sand volleyball