This week, #8 Stanford women’s volleyball will hit the road to face USC and UCLA. Stanford will face USC on Wednesday at 7:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks and UCLA on Saturday at 4:30 PM PT on Pac-12 Livestream. Stanford comes in at 18-4 overall and 13-1 in the Pac-12. USC comes in at 18-7 overall and 10-4 in the Pac-12. UCLA comes in at 13-10 overall and 7-7 in the Pac-12, though it is expected they’ll beat Cal and be 14-10 and 8-7 in the Pac-12 when they face Stanford.
Last time out: Stanford defeated Colorado 3-0 (25-16, 26-24, 25-20) on Sunday. Kendall Kipp led the way for Stanford with 19 kills and 6 digs.
RECAP: #8 Stanford WVB sweeps Colorado on The Farm
Kendall Kipp named Pac-12 WVB Offensive Player of the Week for Nov. 7
On USC: The Trojans are currently third in the Pac-12 behind Oregon and first place Stanford. They’re having a strong year overall but went through a bit of a rough patch getting swept by Stanford before getting swept at Utah and losing in four sets at Colorado. They bounced back with a much-needed home sweep over the Arizona schools and will look to get revenge on Stanford tonight.
Skylar Fields continues to lead the way with 5.11 kills per set while Jordan Wilson (2.64 kills per set) and Emilia Weske(2.49 kills per set) are providing good support. The Trojans do a good job moving the ball, averaging 13.02 assists per set to their opponents’ 10.77 assists per set. They also have the edge in service aces with 1.80 per set while their opponents average 1.57.
The bottom line with this Trojans team is while they did get swept at Stanford, they are still dangerous and should be hungry to get some revenge. They desperately need a signature win if they want to get into to the top-25 and a win over Stanford could do the trick.
On UCLA: UCLA has been an up and down team this season, usually getting the split each week. They’ve done a good job of beating the teams they should beat, but they’ve not been able to get many wins over teams ranked higher than them. That’s been their issue.
Charitie Luper is leading the way with 3.44 kills per set while elan McCall averages 3.11 kills per set. They have four other players who average 2+ kills per set, so they got some options outside of Luper and McCall. While they don’t average as many service aces per set as USC with 1.59, they do a great job returning serve as their opponents average 0.85 aces per set. Service return has been a major strength of UCLA and they’ll look to do all they can to not allow Stanford to beat them with their serve.
UCLA does have some talent and when they put it together, they can be pretty good. The issue is consistency. If they can play their best match against Stanford, it could get interesting.
Keys to the road trip: The first thing Stanford needs to do is win the service battle. Both USC and UCLA are used to having more service aces and being the better serving team. If Stanford ends up winning in this department, they should get the sweep this weekend.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is make sure Kendall Kipp isn’t doing it all by herself. If Caitie Baird and Elia Rubin get rolling as well, that will help a lot. Kipp is ready to get however many kills she needs for Stanford to win, but you can’t overly rely on her every night. If Stanford gets good balance, they should be fine.
Finally, Stanford needs to keep up the intensity at the net. McKenna Vicini has been fantastic and then Kami Miner is excellent both with her sets as well as her drop shots and surprise kills. If Stanford wins at the net, they’ll win overall. It’s that simple.
Prediction: I got Stanford winning both matches. I think USC will play them tougher on the road than they did at Maples Pavilion, but I don’t see it going five. I think Stanford beats USC in four sets, but if Stanford is not careful this could go to a fifth set, which I believe was my original prediction for the match at Maples. Just seeing how much Stanford dominated USC makes me think it won’t go five in this one.
And then with the UCLA match, I’m going to say this one goes four sets as well. I think UCLA will pick up a set on Saturday, but Stanford will win rather comfortably overall. So, we’re looking at a pair of 3-1 wins for Stanford.
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