The 2025 NCAA D1 Women’s Volleyball tournament concludes this week in Kansas City. Hey, that sounds like a great opportunity for a Marc NCAA D1 Women’s Volleyball Roo Tale. It’s always a good time for a Roo Tale.
NCAA D1 Volleyball is big time in California. Stanford, UCLA, USC, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, San Diego State, and Pepperdine all own national titles. The men’s and women’s volleyball programs at Pepperdine University are both elite.
The Pepperdine women have reached 26 NCAA tournaments since the 1980s and own 12 conference titles. One of those conference titles came in 2000, which gave the 24-7 Pepperdine Waves earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Pepperdine was also awarded a regional to host. The Waves then learned of their first-round opponent, a foe who would face a raucous hometown crowd of 5,000 at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu, CA: The Fairfield University Stags of Fairfield, CT.
The Stags were no pushovers, owning a 26-7 record and the MAAC Conference crown. Their season included wins over Clemson, West Virginia, and UConn. The 2000 Stags also stole a set from Stanford and took on Penn State in their own tournament. Stanford and Penn State? Those two titans faced each other in the 1999 NCAA title game.
Fairfield arrived in California ready to go. The Stags took the third set from Pepperdine and looked to square the match in a tight fourth set. But the hometown squad prevailed, advancing with a 15-4, 15-9, 14-16, 17-15 win. The 2000 NCAA regional of Fairfield and Pepperdine also included Wisconsin and Texas A&M, who will both compete this Thursday in Kansas City for trips to the 2025 NCAA title game.
2025 was a banner year for Dr. Rebecca Cantor, an All-Conference and All-Academic member of the 2000 Fairfield Stags Women’s Volleyball team. In November 2025, Cantor received word that she and her Stag teammates would be inducted into the Fairfield Athletics Hall of Fame. Induction is set for February 2026 in Connecticut.
And in December 2025, Cantor received word of her selection as the 17th President of Austin College. If you Roos “dig” this story, then be sure to “bump” it so that it “spikes” in the online world. And welcome to Sherman Dr. Cantor.
https://www.austincollege.edu/office-of-the-president/presidential-search