Photo: Steve Galluzzo
After earning California Gatorade State Player of the Year honors as a senior at Marymount High in 2021, when she pounded 296 kills in 89 sets to lead the Sailors to the state championship and a 35-0 record, Elia Rubin showed she can be an elite player at the collegiate level as well this fall.
The outside hitter at Stanford University was one of only two freshmen to made the All-Pac-12 Team and was selected to the seven-player All-Freshman Team.
She also earned AVCA All-Pacific North Region honorable mention after tying for first for the Cardinal in matches played (132), finishing second in kills (365), kills per set (3.15), aces (34) and digs (274) and being named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week five times. She helped Stanford climb to No. 1 in the national rankings during a 21-match winning streak that was snapped by the University of San Diego in five sets in the NCAA Regional Final at Maples Pavilion.
Rubin started playing volleyball at the age of 8 with Sunshine Volleyball Club, run by Palisadian and Marymount High head coach Cari Klein. She led Sunshine’s U17 squad to an Open Division national championship, earning MVP honors along the way.
A big-match player, Rubin powered St. Matthew’s to the 8th-grade girls Delphic League championship in 2017, hammering a team-best 17 kills in the finals at Chaminade. With her leading the way, the Falcons captured three consecutive league crowns under three different coaches while accumulating a 31-1 record. They went 9-0 as 6th-graders (beating Crossroads for the Pacific Basin League title); 11-1 as 7th-graders (ousting Marlborough in the Delphic League final); and 11-0 as 8th-graders.
In each of her three years on varsity at Marymount (her junior season was canceled by the coronavirus) Rubin paced the team in kills, posting a total of 1,135.
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