No. 3 girls’s volleyball (11-2, 4-0 Pac-12) continued its distinctive season with 3-0 wins in opposition to each No. 25 Arizona State (14-1, 2-1 Pac-12) and the College of Arizona (5-10, 0-4 Pac-12) on Friday and Sunday, respectively. With a exceptional workforce effort, the workforce ended the weekend on a five-game successful streak.
Beginning their Friday sport robust, the workforce took an early result in the match with sophomore outdoors hitter Elia Rubin (11 digs and 12 kills on a .400 assault) and fifth-year reverse Kendall Kipp (three blocks, two aces and 15 kills on a .393 assault) main with a number of kills every. All the workforce communicated and easily hit level after level earlier than a timeout.
The Solar Devils got here again robust with three factors till junior Sami Francis (5 blocks and 6 kills on a .545 assault) scored two in a row, pushing Stanford’s result in 22-17. With the ultimate kill from Francis, the Cardinal ended the set victorious, 25-19.
Stanford’s greatest focus was Arizona State senior outdoors hitter Marta Levinska, however the Cardinal’s defensive reactions and communication rapidly curbed her talents. “We had a superb defensive plan, and we keyed on her. It was good execution … we executed a superb sport plan,” stated girls’s volleyball coach Kevin Hambly.
Stanford got here again to set two with the identical tenacity as the primary, following Kipp’s ace with three straight factors to acquire a 6-2 lead. The 2 groups went backwards and forwards on factors for the remainder of the set, however the Devils couldn’t cross the Cardinal. After scoring 4 consecutive factors, the Cardinal received set two by a rating of 25-18.
“It was a giant workforce win. Everybody was specializing in their function,” stated Rubin. The gamers alternated with their kills and digs, every including one other layer of success to the sport. Redshirt senior Caitie Baird’s robust assaults had been very important, incomes the Cardinal three extra factors to solidify their set two lead.
Set three hit the nail into the coffin for the Solar Devils’ probabilities. The Cardinal scored six in a row in the beginning of the set, ultimately holding the result in 15-6. Regardless of the Cardinal’s robust efficiency, a scary scenario occurred when key participant Francis was taken out resulting from an damage. As of now, based on Hambly, it’s unknown when Francis will likely be again on the court docket.
With a fast adaptation to this variation, the workforce remained devoted to selecting up a win with senior libero Elena Oglivie’s highly effective ace and extra factors from Rubin, Kipp and redshirt senior center blocker McKenna Vicini (three blocks including to her four-hundredth of her profession and eight kills on a .462 assault).
“Regardless of who’s on the market on the court docket, any six of us, any mixture, we’re all nonetheless very able to getting so far as attainable,” stated Vicini.
After a remaining kill from Vicini, Stanford took residence one other win with a 25-14 remaining set rating.
Regardless of a four-game successful streak, Hambly stated that the workforce remains to be taking it one sport at a time.
“We go one after the other. We will likely be good for Arizona and determine [out] the following sport,” she stated. “You’ll be able to’t look too far forward and you may’t look again.”
On Sunday afternoon, the workforce completed the weekend stretch efficiently with a 3-0 win in opposition to the Arizona Wildcats. The sport featured 20 kills by Kipp, 17 by Rubin and three by Vicini. Oglivie and Rubin every had 15 digs apiece whereas Kipp completed with an unimaginable 15 aces.
The Cardinal dominated the primary set, happening a 7-0 run after the primary level to take an amazing lead. Stanford performed unimaginable protection, holding the Wildcats to simply 5 kills within the set. Set one completed with an unimaginable 17 level lead for Stanford (25-8).
Set two was extra of the identical: after Arizona held an early three level lead, the Cardinal had been in a position to pull forward due to the workforce’s protection and Kipp and Rubin’s offense. Rubin had maybe her finest offensive sport of the 12 months, hitting a career-high .593 on her swings.
Towards the top of the second set, senior Malia Tufuga made her presence identified. Tufuga, who began instead of the injured Francis, tallied two kills within the remaining 5 factors to assist Stanford safe the set victory.
The Wildcats put up a greater combat within the remaining set, which was a back-and-forth battle till the end. For a lot of the third set, Arizona maintained a one-to-two level lead over the Cardinal. However towards the top of the set, star gamers Rubin, Miner and Kipp started taking on the sport, flipping the momentum in Stanford’s course. A remaining kill from Kipp allowed Stanford to safe a 3-0 sweep of the Wildcats.
The ladies’s volleyball workforce continues their season at Washington — going through the College of Washington on Oct. 6 and Washington State on Oct. 8 — and can return to host USC and UCLA the next week.