Down 2-0 and on the brink of elimination, the San Francisco State University women’s volleyball team rallied and tied up the series in the 2024 NCAA Division II National Championship. In the fifth and final tiebreaker set, the Lynn University Fighting Knights were one point away from securing the victory.
Yet, the Gators weren’t going out without a fight as Katie Parker and Tamiya Wilson secured the next two points, forcing a timeout from the Fighting Knights. After a Kimberly DeBoer serve, a kill is set up for the Fighting Knights, which the Gators can’t answer back to, falling short of a national championship.
While the defeat was bittersweet, the Gators look back fondly at the experience of playing at the national stage.
“It was an amazing experience,” said Alana Larson, a sophomore outside hitter. “That’s something not a lot of people get to experience. I just had so much fun with the girls, so even though we didn’t win, I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
The 2024-25 Gators cemented their legacy in SFSU history forever. The team compiled an overall record of 26-7, with a conference record of 15-3. The team was the first SFSU athletics program to win an NCAA regional tournament with their triumph in the West Regionals.
Expectations could not be higher for the Gators following the results of their previous campaign. Head coach Matt Hoffman is in his 10th season as the leader of the team and is primed for a fresh start.
“Every year is a new group, new team. Seniors graduate, others leave,” Hoffman said. “It’s kind of like a new script, it’s a clean slate. Just because you were really good one year, it doesn’t mean it’s automatically going to repeat. So you just get to form a new narrative with each team.”
The Gators suffered major departures from last year’s team. One of those departures on the court was outside hitter Izzy Issak.
However, for this season, Hoffman has brought Issak back — this time as an assistant coach. She was a major contributor to last season’s achievements, leading the team in kills with 495. Issak has had previous coaching experience with the Vision Volleyball Club, a San Jose-based youth girls club.
After graduating, Issak was searching for jobs outside of sports. When the assistant coach job opened up, Hoffman looked directly to Issak. Issak looks to use her playing time as a Gator and coaching experience with Vision to push the team forward.
“I’ve been coaching since I was in high school, and at every step of coaching, it’s always been about leaving the sport better than I found it,” Issak said. “It’s also about giving back to the sport because it’s given me so much.”
Hoffman is looking to incoming freshmen to fill in what was lost. Hoffman is introducing setter Melanie Hewlett, middle blockers Lindsey Olsen and Lilly Rix to the starting lineup and is excited to see their growth as the season develops.
Coming off a national championship game, the preparation for this season was no different, but the little details within the game have become even more important.
“It’s about not letting ourselves slip through the cracks,” said junior outside hitter Grace Witcher. “Our coaches are really on our butts about making sure we make every contact as perfect as possible and helping each other out. Overall, just giving the most effort that we possibly can.”
This past weekend, the Gators went winless in the West Washington University Invitational, starting off the season 0-4. Hoffman acknowledges the slow start, but said it’s part of the process of improving, especially for the younger players who are just getting started.
“Every day, we just talk about getting better,” Hoffman said. “It’s never been about the results for us. It’s always been about ‘let’s get better at this.’”
Before the season began, the Gators were ranked No. 2 in the CCAA preseason poll and No. 4 in the NCAA preseason poll.
Regardless of the expectations from the outside, Issak also sets the expectation of getting better as a team.
“Last season, we were climbing up national rankings, and we still thought of ourselves as the underdogs,” Issak said. “We still kept a chip on our shoulder and with us losing a lot of those pieces that helped that run last year, there’s an even bigger chip on our shoulder because we know what we’re capable of as a program. There’s not an expectation of needing to repeat, but there’s always an expectation to get better every single day.”
The Gators will host this year’s Gator Classic starting today as they look to bounce back from a slow start and move forward to improve as a team.
