College: Stivrins began her collegiate career at Louisville as an outside hitter where she had 169 kills and 63 digs. She was named to the ACC All-Freshman team as Louisville ended the year ranked 14th in the country and reached the Elite Eight. She transferred to Georgia where in her first season she led the team with 212 kills in a shortened season. The next year Stivrins added 313 kills plus 109 digs and her 47 aces was the most in the SEC and 25th nationally. Her final season at Georgia produced 168 kills and 24 aces. As a grad student she played one season at San Diego, where she had 297 kills, 159 digs and 30 aces, surpassing 1000 kills and 115 aces for her career.

Personal: Stivrins' father, Alex, played basketball at Creighton and Colorado and then for two seasons in the NBA, the CBA, as well as professionally in Spain, Italy and Japan. Her older brother Lucas played basketball at Nevada and her older sister Lauren played volleyball at Nebraska. In high school Stivrins played varsity volleyball beginning as a freshman and tallied 1495 kills, 1008 digs and hit .243.