On Sunday, #3 Stanford women’s volleyball defeated Arizona 3-0 (25-8, 25-14, 25-23). Stanford fifth year opposite Kendall Kipp led the way for the Cardinal with 20 kills and eight service aces while sophomore outside hitter Elia Rubin had 17 kills and 15 digs. Jaelyn Hodge was the top performer for Arizona with 12 kills. Stanford improves to 11-2 overall and 4-0 in the Pac-12 while Arizona falls to 5-10 overall and 0-4 in the Pac-12.
Kipp was named Pac-12 offensive player of the week as a result of her performance.
BOX SCORE: Arizona at Stanford-Sunday, October 1st
“Yeah, I thought especially in the first two sets we did a really nice job defensively against them and they got kinda loose with 18 kills in the third set,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “I think that had a lot to do with them. I thought they made some adjustments and they did a nice job attacking and a setter got them in some spots where they could score, but overall, I mean, it’s nice to get a win in three. Nice to do what we did defensively.”
“Yeah, I thought we did a really good job executing our scouting report,” Stanford libero Elena Oglivie added. “I thought we were in a lot of the right places, especially on defense and I thought we had a good defensive mindset of just kinda going for everything. I thought our hitters did a really good job and Kami did a good job spreading out the offense. We don’t have Sami, but I think she did a good job with the distribution and stuff like that and then I also thought our serve-receive was really good and we executed a lot of balls.”
It was one-way traffic for the Cardinal in the first set. After Arizona won the opening point, Stanford won seven points in a row. Kipp had two service aces and a kill during that stretch while Rubin had four kills. The two of them were off to a hot start. After a kill by Hodge made it 9-5, giving Arizona a bit of life, Stanford then went on a 6-0 run to lead 15-5. Caitie Baird got a pair of kills during that stretch as did Kipp while Rubin got a kill of her own. Stanford would end the set on a 6-0 run to win 25-8. During that final run, Kipp was on fire from serve as she had three straight service aces.
“We had five kills, we just weren’t letting them score, we served them off the court,” Hambly said of the first set. “They had trouble passing. Kipp had eight aces. She had five of them I think in that first set. So, we just kept them off the net. The serving really really disrupted them. And then they kinda settled in and got used to it and then it got a little bit better as it went along.”
“We got off to a good start,” Oglivie added. “I think we’re just all on the little things and that’s something we were talking about. Especially going into today’s match and I thought everyone did a good job just playing their part and their role and not doing too much and like I said, I thought we executed really well.”
Arizona woke up a bit in the second set as it was tied 4-4 after a kill by Hodge. After a kill by Jordan Wilson, Arizona led 10-9. It looked like maybe Arizona would make this a set. But then, Stanford went on a 6-0 run to lead 15-9 as Kipp got three more aces during that stretch. Her serve was really clicking. Arizona would come back one more time to make it 18-14 after a kill by Alayna Johnson, but from there Stanford would win seven points in a row to close out the set and win 25-14. Malia Tufuga had a pair of kills during that stretch as she was filling in with Sami Francis out.
“Without Sami out there, we’re putting McKenna in a position where there’s a lot going to the pins,” Hambly said. “Malia got a few sets, but it’s not the same as having Sami. Sami’s a great offensive weapon and to not have her in there, it puts a little more pressure on the pins and they can kind of load up…I think the most important thing is she [Malia] did a good job blocking. She created good deflections. She gave us chances to score points. That’s really what she did, so that part was great. That’s what we needed from her.”
“So, Sami is very tall person, a very big block,” Oglivie said of not having Francis out there. “So without her, we’re kinda having a little bit of smaller blocks. So my position changes a little bit, but not really too much and so I was just kinda mindful of that, but I thought Malia did a really good job putting herself in really good positions for those blocks and it wasn’t that much big of a difference I thought.”
In the third set, Arizona played their best volleyball. After a kill by Hodge, it was tied 5-5 and then after a kill by Kipp, it was tied 10-10. It was very much a back and forth set. Arizona would lead 16-14 after winning back-to-back points and after a kill by Hodge, they remained in front 17-15. However, Stanford then went on to win five of their next six points to lead 20-18 as Kami Miner got a kill during the stretch.
To Arizona’s credit, they were able to tie it up 22-22 after a pair of kills by Johnson and Hodge. That put some pressure on Stanford. From there, Stanford would find a way to win the set 25-23 as a kill by Miner made it 23-22, a bad set by Arizona made it 24-22, a service error by Miner, and then a kill by Kipp off an assist by Miner, her 35th assist of the match.
“Yeah, I thought their hitters were hitting a lot of good shots as the game went on,” Oglivie said of what Arizona was doing better. “I thought maybe we kind of fell off on the things that we were executing so high in the first set. So I think we had a big part of giving them a lot of their points, but I thought our serving was still good and our serve receive, they just kind of were battling a little bit more.”
For Stanford, this match went according to plan. They got the sweep and for two out of three sets dominated Arizona. Arizona did a nice job of making that third set competitive, but in the end Stanford showed why they are a top five team in the nation.
“They were making adjustments and doing things and hitters were figuring out how to score,” Hambly said of what Arizona did better. “It’s like if you’re playing hoops and you’re guarding somebody and they make a move on you a couple times, then you end up taking that away and that’s kinda what happens.”
Up next for Stanford is a road trip to the Pacific Northwest against the Washington schools. Up first will be Washington on Friday at 6:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks.
“After that loss [to Florida], we had a lot of talks about how we want to play and what Stanford volleyball means to us,” Oglivie said. “And I think what we kind of talked about was just being on the little things and being on our own role and not really focusing on the bigger picture, we’re just taking it step by step. Focusing on one point at a time, one touch at a time, and I thought we were doing a good job of getting consistently better at that and I thought that showed in these last two matches.”
Note: Stanford middle blocker Sami Francis is currently wearing a boot. Her return date remains up-in-the-air as Hambly wasn’t able to provide a specific timeline for her return.
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