On Halloween, Stanford redshirt junior Caitie Baird was named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week for October 31st. Her teammate Elia Rubin was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week. This is Baird’s third career Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week award and her first of the season.
This past weekend, Baird helped guide Stanford to a weekend road sweep at Washington State and #19 Washington, averaging 4.38 kills per set, 2.63 digs per set, and 1.00 blocks per set on a .397 hitting percentage. In Stanford’s 3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-22) victory at Washington State, Baird had 15 kills, 9 digs, 1 service ace, and 3 blocks on a .444 hitting percentage. In Stanford’s 3-2 (25-18, 19-25, 23-25, 25-18, 15-8) victory at Washington, Baird had 20 kills, 12 digs, 2 service aces, and 5 blocks on a .370 hitting percentage.
Baird along with Rubin and Kendall Kipp have been the top three offensive players on this Stanford team this year. Together, they form a really dangerous trio that has a lot of firepower. Kipp has been the more consistent player throughout the year, but when Baird gets going as well, that really takes this Stanford team to another level.
As Stanford seeks to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament and get home court advantage, they’re going to continue to need Baird to have these kinds of performances. It’ll be fun to see what kind of season she and the rest of the Cardinal put together in the second half of the season.
#8 Stanford returns to action on Friday, November 4th when they take on the Utah Utes at home. That will be at 7:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Insider.
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