On Tuesday, #4 Stanford women’s volleyball defeated Cal 3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-19) on the road in Berkeley in round one of the Big Spike. Kendall Kipp, Sami Francis, and Caitie Baird each had nine kills for the Cardinal while Cal freshman Maggie Li led the way for the Golden Bears with 10 kills. Stanford improves to 8-2 overall and 1-0 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 11-1 overall and 0-1 in the Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Stanford at Cal-Tuesday, September 19th
“Yeah, I mean I thought we came out really strong early and did a good job of executing,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “I thought for the most part we carried that through the first set and then about halfway through the second we got a little bit lackadaisical and made some mistakes and Cal pushed and they did a nice job. And I thought we got back to playing the way we want to play. So, I thought all in all, it was a good match for us. It was like tough after a quick turnaround after Louisville and they get a 3-0 win and get out of here and get on the bus in a little bit here. It’s a good deal for us.”
After Stanford took a 3-1 lead in the first set, Cal won two points in a row to make it 3-3 thanks to a service error by Stanford and a kill by Li. Stanford then won three points in a row to make it a 6-3 lead thanks to two attack errors by the Bears plus a kill by Kipp. After a service error by Stanford and a kill by Li, it was tied up 8-8 once more. Stanford would respond by winning five points in a row to lead 13-8. During that 5-0 run, Kipp and Francis each got a kill while Kipp also got a service ace.
After a kill by Li, Cal was back on the board as it was now 13-9. Cal was looking to close the gap even further, but instead Stanford went on a 4-0 run to lead 17-9 as Elia Rubin got a kill and service ace while Francis got a kill. The other point for Stanford during that run was due to a bad set by Cal. Cal would make the final score of the set look more respectable, but Stanford still won it handily 25-18.
Cal really came to play in the second set as it was tied 5-5 after Stanford’s McKenna Vicini and Cal’s Mikayla Hayden traded kills. After Stanford led 9-8, Cal went on a 3-0 run to lead 11-9 thanks to a pair of errors by Stanford and a kill by Sam Taumoepeau. After that, the fun appeared to be over for Cal as Stanford went on a 5-0 run to lead 14-11 and after Cal made it 14-12, Stanford went on a 4-0 run to make it 18-12. Cal did a nice job of bouncing back to get within one point at 23-22.
Sadly for the Bears, a service error and attack error handed the set to the Cardinal 25-22. A real key stretch during this point was when Cal made it 20-17 only for Sami Francis to get back-to-back kills to make it 22-17. Once Stanford had that kind of lead, you knew Cal was going to be hard-pressed to pull off the comeback.
In the third set, Stanford set the tone early by leading 4-0 as Kendall Kipp, Sami Francis, and Kami Miner each got a kill while Elia Rubin got a service ace. After Cal made it 6-4 following a kill by Mikayla Hayden, Stanford won three points in a row to lead 9-4 as Kipp and Rubin tacked on another kill each while Cal committed an attack error. Cal narrowed things to 11-8 after a kill by Ellie Hamm, but Stanford went on a 3-0 run to lead 14-8 as Rubin got a kill and a service ace while Kipp got a kill. It soon would be a 19-12 lead for Stanford after a kill by Kipp and a service ace by Baird. From there, Stanford cruised to a 25-19 victory in the third set. It was a 3-0 sweep for the Cardinal in enemy territory.
“Fight, we gotta fight, just keep fighting,” Hambly said of the key to finishing strong. “Keep battling. Like, don’t let up at all. Keep fighting.”
“I mean, our defense was really great,” Francis said of the victory. “There were a couple times we didn’t communicate as well as we could have, but other than that I think we played a great game. We’ve been focusing on like finding ourselves and so I think this was a step in the right direction.”
For Stanford, this is a really nice win. Cal came in undefeated and brought a strong crowd with them. It felt like a real rivalry match. For Stanford to get the sweep, they had to play their best as Cal wasn’t going to give in.
“One of the best environments we’ve had since when I’ve been here,” Hambly said. “And I think that was, I don’t know what the crowd was like, what was it like? They have attendance zero. It was bigger than the zero. It felt like the band rocking. It was a really good environment. They were behind their team and it’s really nice to see of a Pac-12, future ACC opponent, you know?”
“In my opinion this is probably the biggest crowd I’ve seen at Cal so far,” Francis added. “And I think that sometimes without a crowd, we kinda lose our voices in a way and we don’t bring our energy, but I think as a team, we play better with a big crowd. I mean, it fires us up and me especially. I’m very big on like, it gets me hyped…Oh yeah, yeah [we sense the rivalry]. Especially in the crowd, too. I mean, you can hear everyone chanting like ‘Stanford Sucks!’ or this and that. So, I mean, I don’t think so much players personally take it that way, but I mean there’s definitely an underlying feeling of this is our rival. Gotta bring it a little bit more.”
The most impressive part of Stanford’s victory was the way their middle blockers played. In addition to the nine kills that Sami Francis got on a .438 hitting percentage, McKenna Vicini had seven kills on a .417 hitting percentage. When Stanford has their middle blockers playing like that, they are extremely difficult to defeat.
“Both of our middles did a nice job,” Hambly said. “McKenna did a nice job as well. But yeah, Sami had nine kills on sixteen swings and McKenna was seven-for-twelve. So, it was nice to get some middle production going. I thought they did a good job of managing the sets that weren’t exactly there and they scored when they could…It takes pressure off the other guys and they had some big blocks, they did a nice job defensively against us, and I think we need our middles to score and they did a nice job.”
“I think just talking to Kami before the match and just letting her know that hey, I’m there,” Francis said of how she was able to get nine kills. “I think it’s good being good friends with her as well. I mean, we’ve worked on our connection all year and so I think today was just a glimpse of all that so far.”
As for Cal, this is obviously not the outcome they wanted, but they do appear to be trending in the right direction after a couple of rough seasons in which they failed to win a league match. Freshman Maggie Li is the real deal and with her as the cornerstone of their program, Cal has a bright future. When Cal comes to Maples Pavilion later in the season, I expect them to be coming in with a lot more league wins than zero. Their interim head coach Crissy Jones Schoonderwoerd has the Bears trending in the right direction. It’s just a matter of her building on the success they had in the non-conference and translating that into wins in conference.
“Yeah, she was good,” Hambly said of Li. “She’s got a big arm; she made good choices on the attack. I mean, she had ten kills against us and I thought she was, for a freshman especially, a really nice player. By the end of the year, I expect her to be a lot better.”
“She’s very good, she’s good at seeing the block,” Francis said of Li. “She jammed my finger tonight. So, other than that she played a good game and it was fun seeing a freshman take a big role for Cal.”
Up next for Stanford is a road match at Colorado on Sunday. That will begin at 11:00 AM PT on Pac-12 Networks.
“We haven’t even got to Colorado yet,” Hambly said. “It’s gonna be nice to be honest to have a day off tomorrow. We haven’t had one in a while and then to Thursday, Friday, get some training in. Really want to focus on us and we’ll get to Colorado as we get closer to Sunday.”
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