On Saturday, #4 Stanford women’s volleyball defeated Oregon State 3-1 (25-17, 25-17, 21-25, 25-13), completing a home sweep of the Oregon schools. Kendall Kipp and Caitie Baird led the way for the Cardinal with 13 kills each while Peyton Suess had 15 kills for the Beavers. Stanford improves to 22-3 overall and 15-1 in the Pac-12 while Oregon State falls to 10-16 overall and 5-11 in the Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Oregon State at Stanford-Saturday, November 11th
“I thought we came out and really attacked them for the first two sets and then took the foot off the gas a little bit and they started to go and they did a nice job,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “They made some good adjustments and they came after us. They didn’t back down and it was a credit to them. And then I thought we kinda did the same thing right at the beginning. A 6-1 run or whatever early and we put a lot of service pressure on them. So, yeah. It’s kinda like fortunately we didn’t get into a fifth set and get in that space, but I think in general, to score the points we did in one, two, and four, that’s not easy in this league. A team that’s beat Cal and Cal just went five with Oregon just today. So, the league is tough.”
Stanford got off to a 6-4 lead in the first set as Sami Francis, McKenna Vicini, and Caitie Baird had kills. Oregon State then went on a 4-0 run to lead 8-6 as Mychael Vernon had three kills in a row. After a kill by Ryan White, Oregon State was up 10-7 and looked to be in a good spot. But then, Stanford turned on the jets, winning eight of the next nine points to lead 15-11. Anna Pringle had a service ace and a kill for the Cardinal during that stretch. From there, Stanford dictated the rest of the set, winning it 25-17.
Stanford built off that first set to lead 7-2 in the second set. Baird had a pair of kills while Kami Miner had a service ace and a kill. Oregon State got back in it a bit as a kill by Vernon made it 12-10 with the Cardinal only up by two points. Stanford then won three points in a row to lead 15-10 following three errors by Oregon State. After a kill by Suess, Oregon State trailed 17-13. Stanford responded with a 4-0 run to lead 21-13. Stanford would take the set 25-17 following a kill by Kipp.
“When we are just focusing on playing our game and not thinking too much, we don’t want to be frantic and that’s something we’ve been trying to balance with,” Vicini said. “Is finding that fight and that aggression without being too frantic and so it’s really just making sure that we’re holding ourselves to that standard and really making sure that we’re disciplined. When we’re disciplined, then everything just works a lot better. It’s when we start to lose up a little bit on the details that we focus on all the time, when we aren’t focusing on those as much, then it’s not as clean of play. So yeah, we’re just really focusing on taking care of the ball and that was really all our mindset was whenever we got into this match.”
Oregon State responded well in the third set, leading 8-5 following a kill by Vernon. After a kill by Baird made it 9-7, Oregon State went on a 3-0 run to lead 12-7. Following a 3-0 run by Stanford that included a service ace by Elia Rubin, it was now a 17-15 lead for the Beavers. To Oregon State’s credit, they then went on a 3-0 run to lad 20-15. From there, the Beavers would hang on to win the set 25-21. It was now a 2-1 lead for Stanford.
The fourth set was all Stanford. The Cardinal jumped out to a 4-0 lead that included kills from Kipp and Francis plus a service ace by Rubin. Soon, it was an 8-1 lead for Stanford as they were crushing Oregon State like ice. Following a kill by Baird, it was an 11-2 lead. Oregon State would win a few more points to make it not look horrible, but the end result was a 25-13 victory for Stanford following a kill by Rubin. The Cardinal took the match 3-1.
“Just more get back to execution and attack and all that,” Hambly said of what changed in the fourth set. “We backed up just a little, continued to fight to execute. That’s all.”
For Stanford, this was a nice win. Oregon State played tough and found a way to take a set. Rather than allowing the fourth set to get interesting, Stanford put their foot on the gas and finished it off in commanding form. After defeating Oregon, they needed to make quick work of Oregon State and for the most part, they did.
One player who really stood out for the Cardinal in this one was middle blocker McKenna Vicini. She had eight kills on 15 swings, which is nice efficiency.
“I think as always, my performance is really just set up by my teammates,” Vicini said. “It takes everyone working together to allow me a chance to score and then really just help each other out. It starts with a pass. Our passers were doing an amazing job as they always do and then Kami is the best setter in the country. So, she’s setting it at the right times and the right locations. So yeah, that’s how that was possible.”
Up next for Stanford is a road match at UCLA on Friday. That will begin at 7:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Los Angeles.
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