This weekend, #5 Stanford women’s volleyball will welcome #15 Ohio State and #10 Minnesota to The Farm. Stanford comes in at 4-1 overall, Ohio State comes in at 3-2 overall, and Minnesota comes in at 2-2.
Friday’s match against Ohio State will be at 7:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks while Saturday’s match against Minnesota will be at 7:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Insider. This will be part of the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge, which means another Pac-12 school will also be participating. That school will be #6 Oregon.
Last time out: On Tuesday, Stanford defeated Rice 3-0, completing their second straight sweep after doing the same to Texas on Sunday.
RECAP: #5 Stanford WVB sweeps Rice
On Ohio State: The Buckeyes have wins over Northern Kentucky, Bowling Green, and East Tennessee State. The Bowling Green match went to five sets, so that was a bit intense, but they won the fifth set 15-7. Their two losses are to #11 Georgia Tech in back-to-back matches. They won one set in both matches.
Looking at that, it’s hard to know if Ohio State is ranked appropriately. You would think they would have faired better against Georgia Tech. At least splitting with them or perhaps taking them to five sets at least.
The top player for the Buckeyes is senior outside hitter Emily Londot. She is averaging 5.05 kills per set along with 2.21 digs. Sophomore outside hitter Chelsea Thorpe (2.68 kills per set) and freshman outside hitter Grace Egan (2.11 kills per set) are the other two players averaging more than two kills per set. The Cardinal and Ducks will need to be wary of them.
On Minnesota: The Golden Gophers have wins over TCU and #15 Baylor while having losses to #7 Texas and #8 Florida. On paper, they’re the better of the two Big Ten teams coming to The Farm. They at least have a victory over a ranked opponent.
The top player for the Gophers is sophomore outside hitter McKenna Wucherer, who is averaging a team-high 3.79 kills per set. She is playing fantastic this year. The other players averaging over two kills per set are redshirt junior outside hitter Taylor Landfair (2.50 kills per set) and senior outside hitter Lydia Grote (2.00 kills per set). Grote transferred out of Cal, deciding she didn’t want to return to a program that is gunning for a third straight winless season in Pac-12 play.
Keys to the weekend: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is stay in system. If they play the kind of volleyball they want to play and don’t allow either team to break their rhythm, they’re going to be really tough to stop. These are teams that do have the potential to get them out of system, so they have to make sure they are doing all they can to not let that happen.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is serve well in clutch moments. They have a tendency to commit more service errors than their opponents, which head coach Kevin Hambly is ok with since it means they are being aggressive. So long as they at least make sure they cut back on their service errors in clutch points (points that are late in the set), they should be in a good spot. They just can’t give away points if say they are tied 22-22 or something like that.
Finally, Stanford needs to feed off their home court energy. They have an advantage of being on The Farm for this challenge and they have to make the most of it. If they come out swinging and fired up, the home crowd at Maples Pavilion should help make the difference.
Prediction: I got Stanford winning both matches this weekend. The question is by what score. I’m going to say they sweep Ohio State and they drop a set to Minnesota. The way things are trending, that seems like a pretty reasonable prediction, but as we’ve seen anything can happen on a given day.
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