On Saturday, #1 Stanford women’s volleyball fell to #2 San Diego in five sets (25-19, 22-25, 25-19, 23-25, 9-15) in the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament ending their season. San Diego advances to the Final Four where they’ll meet Texas, the number one overall seed in the tournament. Kaite Lukes led the way for San Diego with 20 kills while Grace Frohling and Breana Edwards each had 18 kills. Kendall Kipp was the top performer for Stanford with 24 kills while Kami Miner had 52 assists.
“Just first congratulations to San Diego,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “They were a great team. I mean, obviously they understood how to win and they played great when it mattered the most and happy for Jenn and her program to take a program to a place where they haven’t been before. I thought it was a great match. I thought it was a tight, well-fought, high-level volleyball match. We certainly had chances to win in the fourth set and they made a couple plays and some random things happened and next thing you know you’re in a fifth set and it’s a battle.
“I’m really proud of the way we competed. I’m really proud of the progress we’ve made this year. Incredibly disappointed to not be playing anymore. For a couple reasons. Of course because that’s our goal was of course to win a title, but mostly because I’m gonna be sad to not be coaching this group for a while. Like, we have the break and then just didn’t want the season to end and just really love this group and really love how hard they worked all year from where they were last year to where they are now. I wish we could have been better for them so we could still be playing next week and we’ll do what we can to get there and try to get back and put ourselves in this situation again next year.”
Stanford got off to a strong start in the first set, leading 10-5 after a service ace by Elena Oglivie and an attack error by San Diego. After a kill by Sami Francis, it was now a 14-8 lead for Stanford as the Cardinal continued to stay in front. After a kill by Kipp, Stanford led 18-11 as momentum continued to be on their side. San Diego would win a few more points to make the set more competitive, but it ended in a 25-19 victory for Stanford after a set-clinching kill from McKenna Vicini. Kipp was leading Stanford with 5 kills while Miner was up to 12 assists. As for San Diego, Lukes and Frohling each had 5 kills.
In the second set, Stanford jumped out to a 10-5 lead as they were on a 4-0 run. Oglivie had another service ace and was doing a great job of putting service pressure on San Diego. The Toreros would respond to even things up at 11-11 after a kill by Edwards and an attack error by Stanford.
Things would remain back and forth as things were once again tied 14-14 after a kill by Frohling. San Diego would then go up 15-14 after a service ace by Madi Allen and then lead 16-14 after an attack error by Stanford. After getting up 24-20, San Diego would drop a couple of points before closing out the set 25-22 after a set-clinching kill by Blackwell. It was now one set apiece.
The third set was tight early as it was tied 8-8 after Edwards and Francis exchanged kills. Stanford would go up 9-8 after a service ace from Elia Rubin and then 10-8 after a kill by Miner. From there, Stanford would go up 13-9 as they were currently on a 3-0 run. Kipp was up to 15 kills.
After back-to-back kills from Vicini, it was a 17-12 lead for Stanford. They had clearly reclaimed momentum. Stanford would then go on to win the set 25-19 after a set-clinching kill by Kipp. The Cardinal were now up 2-1.
To San Diego’s credit, they found a way to bounce back in the fourth set, leading 8-3 after a kill by Lukes. Stanford called for time, hoping to get things going back in their favor.
Stanford would close the gap a bit as San Diego led 15-12. Oglivie had a huge save that landed in and counted as a kill. Stanford was back in the set. Stanford would eventually lead, going up 20-18 as they were on a 4-0 run. Two kills from Rubin, a kill from Kipp, and a San Diego service error is what made up the run.
San Diego would then battle back to even things up 22-22 before Stanford went up 23-22 following a kill by Caitie Baird. Stanford was two points away from winning the match. Rather than closing out the match, Stanford would lose the next three points as Kipp had an attack error followed by kills from Frohling and Lukes. 25-23 San Diego took the fourth set.
In the fifth set, it was tight early as both teams were tied 5-5. San Diego would then go up 7-5 after an attack error by Stanford and a service ace by Frohling. After a kill by Haylee Stoner, it was an 8-6 lead for San Diego after which Stanford committed an attack error, making it 9-6. Thanks to a kill by Rubin and two attack errors from San Diego, Stanford tied it up 9-9. From there, San Diego went on a 6-0 run to win the set 15-9 and take the match in five sets. Blackwell got back-to-back kills to close it out.
“We had a couple errors, they had a couple good swings, they turned a couple digs into some kills,” Hambly said of the fifth set. “It’s just what happens. I think if they extend that set, we made a run, I think we make another run. I think that’s, the way that game was going, the whole match was up and down, up and down, and that’s the tough part about a fifth set. It’s pretty short and if you get down a little bit, hey we fought back to tie it up, and then they made a couple of other plays and got away from us a bit there. I wouldn’t say it was anything in particular. That’s how volleyball goes and they were making plays.”
For San Diego, this is an historic victory. It’s their first trip to the Final Four in program history. They’ve been one of the top teams all season long and showed why they deserve more respect than what they’ve gotten. Their defense was incredible, they did a great job taking Stanford out of system in key moments and just not allowing them to get any easy kills. They deserved this win.
“I have no words right now for the emotion that is outpouring from our team, from our fans, from our locker room, from administration to staff, I mean it just, it was such a team win and the fact that they, it was a battle,” San Diego head coach Jennifer Petrie said after the match. “It was an absolute battle and they never ever gave up on it. And it’s such a testament to their tenacity, their resilience, their bravery, it’s just outstanding and Stanford is an excellent team and it was an excellent environment. They really did a great job of showcasing some really great volleyball and I couldn’t be more proud of persevering and winning that round.”
“I mean, they had good size and they touched balls and they had players that put themselves in good spots and made plays,” Hambly said of San Diego’s defense. “And they turned them into good swings. I thought it was going with both directions we both did a nice job on defense. Both teams were, that’s where I thought it was a high level match. That the defense was played at a high level. The block was good. I don’t know, we had something like 16 blocks and they had 12 and the hitting efficiencies, we kinda figured each other out, went pretty low in that fifth set even because the defense was such a high level. So, I think they’re just a really good team and they have great balance and we talked about that before and good size and yeah. Good volleyball team. That’s what happens.”
As for Stanford, this loss really stings. They were at home and were a couple points away from winning the match in four sets. With the match going to a fifth set, that gave San Diego all the life they needed. This is a match that Stanford certainly wishes they could have back as they feel like they could have played better in clutch moments.
At the same time, Stanford knows they’ll be back as they are returning all of their regular rotation players from this year’s team. They have to be proud knowing they made this run with Sami Francis not being at full strength. The future is bright and they’re bringing in a really talented recruiting class as well. They made tremendous progress after losing in the second round of the tournament last year and so there’s a lot of reason for hope for next season to be the year they win a national title again.
“If we had peaked now and we’re gonna be worse next year, I’d be pretty worried about that,” Hambly said. “But I feel like we have a lot of growth ahead of us. We have everyone back and we’re adding some great recruits that are gonna help us get better. But, we’ll worry about that in January. Right now, it’s about right now. And just kinda processing this and I don’t know, mourning our season. I think this is hard. I think everyone at the end of the season gets sick and there’s a little bit of a mourning period that takes place. Whether you win or lose it, it’s the same. There’s a mourning period that you have to go through and these guys will take some time to reflect and I hope that they reflect enough to see all the good in what this season was and things that we learned and how much better we got.”
“I’m really proud of the growth of our team and that’s a testament to both our staff and just every single member of this team,” Kipp added. “Everyone comes in and puts in so much work every day in the offseason and in the season. We were just talking about how at this point in the season a lot of times teams are kinda dragging and dreading going to practice sometimes, you’ve never once felt that feeling in our gym. Everyone was coming in so ready to work hard and so ready to fight and I just think that’s really helped us get to where we are and I think we were capable of more than we did tonight. So, it definitely stings but we’re ready to get back in the gym as soon as we’re back and fight for next year.”
To connect with CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook and Twitter, click here.
To connect with Ben Parker on Facebook and Twitter, click here.
Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
