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The best blocker in college men’s volleyball is coming back for one more season.
All-American middle attacker Scott Stadick announced earlier this week that he will return in 2021 to play a fifth season for UC Irvine.
The NCAA granted men’s volleyball players an extra year of eligibility after the remainder of the 2020 season was canceled in March because of the coronavirus pandemic. This eligibility ruling, which applied to all student-athletes in spring sports, resulted in seniors being able to come back in 2021.
Stadick in 2020 was the finalist for the Ryan Millar Award and won the National Block of the Year for the second time in his college career.
The middle attacker last season led the nation with a 2.03 blocks per game average — the highest single-season average in NCAA I-II men’s volleyball during the 25-point rally scoring era. He also had both a nation-best 136 blocks and was the only player to have double-digit blocks in four matches.
Stadick publicly unveiled his decision to return in a guest column that was published on the UC Irvine athletics department website.
Along with continuing his playing career with the Anteaters, Stadick stated in the column he has started graduate school and will pursue his Master of Business Administration at UC Irvine. Stadick graduated with his bachelor’s degree in July and was named the 2020 UC Irvine Male Scholar Athlete of the Year.
UC Irvine concluded the shortened 2020 season at No. 6 in both the national coaches poll and national media poll.