STANFORD — Sprint Center in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, is located fewer than 25 miles away from St. James Academy.
That’s the same high school Stanford setter Jenna Gray and middle blocker Audriana Fitzmorris, both sophomores on The Farm, attended.
Back in 2010, the NCAA women’s volleyball Final Four took place at Sprint Center.
Seven years later, history repeats itself. But instead of watching from the stands this time around Gray and Fitzmorris will be on the court trying to defend the NCAA title.
Both were bombarded with text messages inside the locker room at Maples Pavilion on Saturday night after a sweep of Texas — 25-21, 25-21, 25-21 — in the NCAA Regional hosted by third-seeded Stanford (30-3), a rematch of last year’s championship game.
Expect an unimaginable number of family and friends in attendance for the Final Four.
“I think it was my senior year of high school and my friends texted me, ‘Hey, I just saw online that the Final Four is going to be in Kansas City your sophomore year,’ ” Gray said. “So this has been something that has been on my radar for a couple of years now. But I’m definitely excited.
“I’ve been getting a lot of texts just throughout this season and throughout the tournament from family and friends and they’re like, ‘We already bought our tickets, please make sure to get out here.’ So I’m excited to see them, a little bit of pressure.”
Fitzmorris added: “It’s been in the back of my mind, for sure. … And I remember being back in 2010, I think it was in Kansas City and watching that championship there. And I’m so glad to be able to be back in that environment.”
The Final Four features top-seeded Penn State (33-1), which defeated Stanford twice during an eight-day span in September, in a semifinal against No. 5 Nebraska (30-4)
Meanwhile, the Cardinal takes on No. 2 Florida (29-1) on Thursday in its quest for back-to-back NCAA titles.
“It’s been our goal all year and we haven’t been shy about winning it,” Stanford coach Kevin Hambly said.
“I think it’s the goal for every team, obviously,” said Stanford outside hitter Kathryn Plummer, the Pac-12 player of the year and one of four sophomores in the starting lineup. “And I think that at Stanford it’s kind of the expectation — and definitely for our class it’s the expectation. We kind of know how to do it. It’s definitely hard and it’s really hard to do it multiple times, but that’s our goal, that’s why we came here.”
Plummer was voted Most Outstand Player at the NCAA Regional after a match-high 19 kills against sixth-seeded Texas (27-3) in front of 2,933 fans at Maples Pavilion.
“I think she’s arguably up for player of the year, deservedly so,” Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said. “We talk about … all of her attack selections of where she can swing. She’s got every shot in the book — she can go hard cross, she can go deep corner, she can go high line, she can have a roll shot, she can go flat hands. She’s got great wrists and great vision. She’s got great command of the ball. There’s no way you can stop Kathryn Plummer, unless she’s having a really bad night.”
Such a scenario presented itself at the outset after Stanford found trailed 5-0 in Game 1.
Hambly, who took over the reins after John Dunning retired following the seventh NCAA title in program history, didn’t call a timeout.
Instead, the Cardinal figured its way out.
“I liked the composure that we showed early,” Hambly said.
“We’ve been in a couple of matches where we’ve let the beginning slip,” Gray said. “But we talk a lot about focusing one point at a time. I think it’s hard to look at coming back from 5-0 altogether. … Each point means the same amount — a point is a point.”
Junior middle blocker Tami Alade closed out the opening set with a roof, then Plummer recorded her 16th kill to bring an end to Game 2.
“I thought Kathryn did a great job, of course, and she carried a big load,” Hambly said. “We probably set her too much, she had 46 swings. Not blaming you too much Jenna for that, sorry. … But she came through, especially in big moments.”
In Game 3, the Cardinal found its stride and hit at a .436 clip to overpower the Longhorns.
“I thought we had to grind it out, especially being down 5-0, we made it a little bit ugly,” Hambly said. “And in the last set, the whole kind of match shifted. … It was a very interesting and a different match that I’ve been a part of. Usually there’s a kind of common thread that runs through the match, but this one it felt like two totally different matches to me.”
“Both teams are really physical and you saw that last year, you saw that tonight,” Plummer said. “Just a very offensive game and then we had sparks of defense that kind of lit our fire.”
On match point, it seemed fitting that Stanford fifth-year senior Merete Lutz delivered her fifth kill in Game 3 to send the Cardinal to another Final Four — even if it wasn’t picture perfect as the ball skimmed off her right hand.
“It was definitely in our head this is her last game in Maples and we wanted to make it special for her and really fight for her,” Gray said.
“It wasn’t the best kill of her career, but of course you were going to set it,” Hambly added. “That was a foregone conclusion.”
Nothing is set in stone when it comes to the Final Four, except for a return to Sprint Center for Gray and Fitzmorris, who one way or another have gone through this before — spectators in 2010, then NCAA champions in 2016.
“I think we’re pretty different from last year, and that’s kind of the nice part,” Gray said. “Is that you can feel the pressure to repeat, but it feels so different so that you almost forget about last year. Different offense, a couple of different people, so we’re excited to create a new chapter.”