On Saturday, No. 6 Stanford women’s volleyball defeated No. 16 Georgia Tech 3-0 (25-9, 25-17, 25-12). Stanford junior outside hitter Elia Rubin led the way for the Cardinal with 11 kills and four blocks while redshirt freshman outside hitter Ipar Kurt had 10 kills and three blocks. Stanford libero Elena Oglivie was named ACC Defensive Player of the Week following the match while setter Kami Miner weas named ACC Setter of the Week. Stanford improves to 19-4 overall and 11-3 in the ACC while Georgia Tech falls to 18-5 overall and 10-4 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Georgia Tech at Stanford-Saturday, November 9th
“Yeah, I mean, I think we played very very clean,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “Like in all aspects and that’s a very good team and we did a nice job on defense and I thought offensively we did what we needed to do. Just a very very clean match and we executed at a really high level.”
“We talked a lot about executing beforehand and I thought we did a really good job on all aspects of our defense,” Elena Oglivie added. “Attacking, blocking, setting, everything. Serving really well. So, I thought we stuck to the game plan and executed really well.”
Stanford dominated the first set. It was tight early on as Stanford led 3-2, but then Stanford went on a 4-0 run to lead 7-2 as Sami Francis had a pair of kills while Ipar Kurt had a kill during the run. In the blink of an eye, it was a 12-3 lead for Stanford as Kurt had a couple more kills while Lizzy Andrew got on the board with a kill of her own. Koko Kirsch also had a service ace.
After Stanford had a service error to make it 14-7, Stanford went on an 8-0 run to lead 22-7. Jordyn Harvey and Elia Rubin each had a kill during the run while Elena Oglivie had a service ace. Stanford would take the set 25-9 after a kill by Francis clinched the set.
Georgia Tech started off the second set with some promise leading 3-0 and would lead 7-4 after an attack error by Stanford. Stanford would then win three straight points to tie it up 7-7 as Kurt and Harvey had kills during the run while Miner had a service ace. After a kill by Bianca Bertolino gave Georgia Tech a 9-8 lead, Stanford went on a 3-0 run to lead 11-9 as Andrew and Harvey had kills during the run.
After a kill by Larissa Mendes made it 12-11, Stanford went on a 4-0 run to lead 16-11 as Francis had three kills during the run. From there, Stanford would take the set 25-17 as back-to-back kills from Rubin and Harvey ended the set. It was now a 2-0 lead for the Cardinal.
“The last two nights we had great distribution,” Hambly said. “It’s because we’re passing well and Kami was really forcing balls and Sami, Sami put up crazy numbers. Ipar put up crazy numbers. I thought Kami did an excellent job this weekend. One of the best weekends she’s had at Stanford.”
In the third set, it was one-way traffic as Stanford jumped out to a 9-1 lead and didn’t look back from there. Four of those nine points came from kills by Rubin. Georgia Tech didn’t stand a chance. 25-12 would be the final score of the third set as a kill by Harvey ended the match.
“We blocked them thirteen times and we kept them off the net so they couldn’t get their quicks going,” Hambly said of their success. “And then they got very simple like all teams do and so I think we did it really nice. They’re a very good passing team, right? I think we did a really nice job of knocking them off the net all night.”
“I think our blocking was really well,” Oglivie added. “They’re getting great touches and just great blocks, and so it just made it a lot easier to work around the block and get some good digs and I thought everyone was going all out for it, just going after every dig and so it was really a team collective effort and I thought we all did a good job playing defense.”
For Stanford, this was a dominating win. Even more dominating than their win over Clemson on Friday. Stanford executed their game plan really well and in the process dismantled a Georgia Tech team that came in ranked inside the top 20.
“No, I didn’t expect that at all,” Hambly said of how much they dominated the Yellow Jackets. “I expected it to be a fight, but I mean, we earned it. I thought we executed at a really high level. I know it’ll be a very different match at their place. It’ll be rocking and they’ll be comfortable. They came all this way and it’s tough, you know? So, we’ll see them right before Thanksgiving, the day before Thanksgiving and I’m sure it’ll be an absolute battle. But no, I don’t think either team expected it to be that way.”
“Yeah, I think it goes back to our game plan,” Oglivie said of their dominance. “We just did a good job executing and so no surprise because I think we were just playing really sharp, really on top of everything on every hit, defense, like serving as well, too. So I think we just all did a collectively good job being on everything.”
Up next for Stanford will be a home match against Virginia on Thursday, November 14th at 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“I don’t know anything about them yet,” Hambly said of Virginia. "I need to kind of get some video and watch. I don’t know much about them. I know they’ve won some more matches than they have in the past, but I haven’t really watched them.”
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