On Sunday, #3 Stanford women’s volleyball got swept in straight sets by #21 Arizona State (16-25, 21-25, 14-25). Arizona State senior outside hitter Marta Levinska led the way for the Sun Devils with 17 kills & 12 digs on a .371 hitting percentage while Stanford redshirt senior outside hitter Caitie Baird was the top performer for the Cardinal with 12 kills on a .296 hitting percentage. Arizona State improves to 21-3 overall and 9-3 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 18-3 overall and 11-1 in the Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Stanford at Arizona State-Sunday, October 29th
Stanford got outplayed in this match from start to finish. After a kill by Stanford middle blocker Sami Francis, the Cardinal trailed 4-3, but then Arizona State went on a 3-0 run to lead 7-3 as Roberto Rabelo and Marta Levinska each got a kill during the run. After Kami Miner got a kill for Stanford, the Cardinal were down by just three (5-8). Arizona State responded with a 5-0 run to lead 13-5. Levinska had a couple more kills during that run. She was on fire.
After a service ace by Claire Jeter, the Sun Devils led 18-8. The Cardinal were in some trouble. Rather than finding a way to get on a large enough run to make things interesting, Stanford ended up losing the set 25-16 as Rabelo got the set-clinching kill for the Sun Devils.
The second set was the only set that at least had a competitive score. It was back and forth early on as it was tied 9-9 after Kendall Kipp got back-to-back kills for Stanford before Baird had a service error. Stanford then led 11-9 after back-to-back attack errors by Arizona State. Stanford looked like that might have finally settled into the match.
After Stanford led 13-12, Arizona State went on a 3-0 run to lead 15-13 before Stanford bounced back to tie it up 15-15. It remained back and forth for a bit as Arizona State led 19-18 after Stanford forced Arizona State to hit an attack error. At that point, Arizona State went on a 5-0 run punctuated by a kill by Shannon Shields. Arizona would go on to take the set 25-21 as a kill by Levinska ended the set.
Down by two sets, Stanford needed to find a way to get back into the match, but they never were able to find that much-needed spark. After it was tied 4-4, Arizona State went on a 7-0 run to lead 11-4. At this point, it was clear it just wasn’t Stanford’s night. In the end, Arizona State would take the third set 25-14 as a kill by Maddie McLaughlin put Stanford away for good.
For Arizona State, this is obviously a huge win. To sweep a top four team in the nation on your home floor is as big of a win as it gets. They thoroughly outplayed Stanford from start to finish and deserved to win. Stanford was never in sync in this one.
As for Stanford, all they can do is learn from this and move on. Fortunately for them, they have enough quality wins over the course of the season that if they win out, they should still get a top four seed in the NCAA tournament. They are currently ranked 5th in the AVCA rankings behind #4 Texas, but they beat Texas earlier this season on the road, hence my belief that they can still end up ahead of Texas in the seedings. That said, they can’t lose any more matches going forward. They need to win out from here.
Up next for Stanford is a home match on Friday against #9 Washington State. That will begin at 6:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Insider.
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