Over the weekend, No. 7 Stanford women’s volleyball swept Duke and North Carolina on the road. Against Duke, Stanford won 3-0 (25-14, 25-23, 25-11). Against UNC, Stanford won 3-0 (25-13, 25-10, 26-24). Stanford is now 23-4 overall and 15-3 in the ACC after the two matches.
BOX SCORE: Stanford at Duke-Friday, November 22nd
BOX SCORE: Stanford at UNC-Sunday, November 24th
Touching first on the match against Duke, Stanford redshirt freshman outside hitter Ipar Kurt led the way with 19 kills while hitting .545. She really led the way for the Cardinal in this one. Sophomore outside hitter Jordyn Harvey was also fantastic with 12 kills and 10 digs, getting a double double.
The first and third sets were pretty much one-way traffic for the Cardinal against the Blue Devils. After it was tied 3-3 in the first set, they went on a 6-0 run to lead 8-3 and never looked back from there, closing out the set on a 4-0 run. In the third set, Stanford jumped out to a 6-2 lead and never looked back as they closed out the set and match on a 6-0 run.
The second set was legitimately tight as Duke got out to an early 6-2 lead and Stanford didn’t tie things up until it was 16-16 off a kill by Sami Francis. It would be tied 22-22 after a kill by Harvey and from there, Stanford would hang on to win the set as a kill by Harvey closed it out.
Switching gears to the match against North Carolina, junior outside hitter Elia Rubin led the way for Stanford with 13 kills and 12 digs, while Ipar Kurt had eight kills. Senior middle blocker Sami Francis had seven kills, matching what she had against Duke. Francis was fantastic in both matches.
The only difference between the North Carolina and the Duke match was the order in which Stanford won each set with ease. While it was the first and third sets that were the easiest for Stanford against Duke, it was the first and second sets that were the easiest to win against North Carolina while the third set was the set they had the hardest time winning.
In the first set against UNC, Stanford jumped out to a 4-0 lead and would soon lead 8-3 after a service ace by Elia Rubin and a service ace by Ipar Kurt. From there, Stanford really wouldn’t look back as they had two 3-0 runs and one 4-0 run mixed in there, winning the set 25-13 as a service ace by Kami Miner closed out the set. In the second set, Stanford jumped out to an 8-1 lead and closed the set out on a 5-0 run to win 25-10. So easy sailing there.
The third set was back and forth the whole way. Every time Stanford pulled ahead a bit, UNC came right back to tie it up or take the lead. Neither team led by more than two points during the set. After it was tied 24-24, Stanford finally put UNC away after two attack errors against UNC. 26-24 Stanford took the third set and clinched the match.
For Stanford, this was obviously a great weekend. They were looking to take care of business at Duke and UNC and they did just that. Of the six sets they played, four went by without a hitch while two of them required them to dig deep a little to get the sweep. It’s never easy to sweep teams, especially on the road. You’re going to have to expect at least one set in a match to be tight in a sweep. It usually ends up that way.
Moving on to the final match of this road trip, Stanford will play No. 19 Georgia Tech on Wednesday, November 27th on the road at 12:00 PM PT on ACCNX. Georgia Tech is 20-7 overall and 12-6 in the ACC. Stanford and Georgia Tech met earlier on The Farm back on Saturday, November 9th. Stanford dominated 3-0 (25-9, 25-17, 25-12), but is expecting a much more intense match when they play Georgia Tech again at their place.
“No, I didn’t expect that at all,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said of how much they dominated the Yellow Jackets on The Farm. “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.”
It certainly will be interesting to see if Stanford can come out and pull out the win on the road against Georgia Tech. If they do, that would be huge as they close things out at home on Saturday, November 30th on Senior Day against No. 3 Louisville. If Stanford is able to get the win against Georgia Tech, a top four overall seed in the NCAA tourney could be on the line come Saturday.
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