On Wednesday, #6 Stanford women’s volleyball defeated Oregon State 3-1 (25-23, 26-28, 25-11, 25-14) to clinch the regular season Pac-12 championship. Caitie Baird led the way for the Cardinal with 26 kills, 12 digs, and 3 blocks while Kendall Kipp had 17 kills, 3 digs, and 4 blocks. Mychael Vernon was the top performer for the Beavers with 13 kills. Stanford improves to 23-4 overall and 18-1 in the Pac-12 while Oregon State falls to 7-22 overall and 2-17 in the Pac-12.
“Everyone in our league can compete,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “Like we’re playing Cal tomorrow and they haven’t won any matches, but they’ve been going five with everybody. And like I expect them to play just like Oregon State did. Our league’s good. People battle and they came out to battle and we made some errors early and gave them some chances and didn’t play incredibly clean, but I thought we finally kinda figured some things out in the second set and started to play more our style.”
Early on the first set was tied up 5-5 as both teams were trading points back and forth. Then, Stanford went on a 5-0 run to lead 10-5 as Kipp had a pair of kills during the stretch. After back-to-back kills by Baird, it was a 15-11 lead for the Cardinal. Oregon State would then go on a 4-0 run, aided by three attack errors from Stanford. This tied it up 15-15. It would continue to remain a back and forth set all the way until Stanford finally won two points in a row to win the set 25-23 after an Oregon State attack error and a kill by McKenna Vicini. Kelly Belardi was on serve for Stanford, doing a nice job of helping them close out the set.
“She’s developed into a really nice point scorer for us,” Hambly said of Belardi’s serving. “Her rotation, at one point I looked down on her side we were scoring 65 percent in her rotation which is astronomical. So, I think she’s really developed into a nice server and has done a nice job of doing that every night. It’s not new for her to do a nice job for us and score points.”
In the second set, Oregon State came out swinging, going on a 9-0 run to lead 14-9. The Cardinal needed to stop the bleeding. A kill by Kami Miner finally got Stanford back on the board, making it 14-10. Caitie Baird would then win two points in a row to make it 14-12 as Stanford was coming back in the set. After a kill by Elia Rubin, Stanford tied it up 18-18.
After Oregon State got up 23-20, Baird got a kill to make it 23-21. Then, Belardi got two service aces, making it tied up at 23 apiece. Stanford got a set point at 25-24, but a kill by Kinley Swan tied it back up 25-25. From there, Oregon State found a way to win the deuce set 28-26 after an attack error from Stanford and a kill by Vernon.
In the third set, Stanford came out guns blazing, winning the first five points to go up 5-0. After Stanford broke serve, they won four points in a row with Miner on serve, with two of the points being service aces. Stanford would continue to push their lead up to 12-3 as Elena Oglivie started to heat up on serve, getting back-to-back service aces. Stanford would cruise to win the set 25-11 as they ended the set on a 3-0 run with two of the kills being from Vicini.
“Well, I just felt like we were waiting around for them to give us the match instead of taking it,” Hambley said. “And we’re like hey, we gotta fight for every point and they’re not going to give us this match. We just saw what they just did to us. So we gotta go take it from them. And so I think they responded to that. They defended and they served. I thought especially service-wise we put a lot of pressure on them.”
The fourth set was tied 5-5 before Stanford finally started to pull away. After a kill by Baird and an attack error from Oregon State, it was a 7-5 lead for Stanford. After back-to-back kills from Baird as part of a 3-0 run, it was now a 10-6 lead for Stanford. After leading 15-10, Stanford went on a 5-0 run to lead 20-10 as Miner got a kill, Baird got a pair of kills, and Rubin got a pair of service aces. From there, Stanford won the set 25-14 as Baird got the set and match-clinching kill.
“She made good shots and she got her feet to the ball and made some good swings and I thought took a little bit for Kami to find her, but once she started finding her then we got a good rhythm,” Hambly said of Baird. “We needed her man. Because we were kinda struggling in some other places for sure.”
“I felt really in rhythm tonight,” Baird added. “But I can’t do that without my team. Getting those ups, getting those sets, putting the ball in places where I can take swings and just going for it.”
For Stanford, it feels good to clinch the Pac-12 title. They’ve won 17 matches in a row and are really on an incredible roll. Baird was balling out in this one and had one of her better performances of the season.
“It feels awesome getting that automatic bid to the tournament,” Baird said of winning the Pac-12 title. “It’s huge. It’s gonna put us in a good position I hope and we’re just excited about it to have it back in our hands. So it’s a good team effort and we took care of it.”
As for Oregon State, one has to give them credit. While they lost the match, they battled hard and make Stanford earn their title. They were definitely not a push over.
Up next for Stanford is their final match of the regular season on Friday against Cal. That will be at home at 6:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Bay Area. While Cal is winless in league play, Stanford knows they cannot lose their focus in this final match of the regular season.
“We got a shot at a top four seed, I think,” Hambly said of this final week before the NCAA tournament selection. “So, we could be here through the regional. So, we’re fighting for that. If we could take care of business against Cal, we did the best we can as far as winning eighteen in a row through the conference and hopefully that translates into us being able to host the first four rounds, but if not, we’ll be ready. We’ve been good on the road. We’re trying to use these opportunities to help us get better for what we’re going to see in the tournament, but also try to make as good a resume as we can to have the best possible seed.”
“It’s huge,” Baird added of the importance of this weekend. “It’s important for us to stay focused and not take anything light. These teams can show up and they can put a fight up and it’s important to keep going and because the tournament is coming quick and we gotta be prepared and just be ready to go fight every point.”
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
Join the conversation on CardinalSportsReport.com
Note: Are you not a subscriber to CardinalSportsReport.com and interested in becoming one? Do you want to have more quality conversations about Stanford sports? New users can sign up and pay just $22.00 for the first year of an annual subscription! Click here to sign up if you are a new subscriber.
Promo Code: RIVALS22
Offer valid through 11.28.22
