On Sunday, #7 Stanford women’s volleyball defeated Arizona State 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 25-16, 25-16) on the road in Tempe. Elia Rubin led the way for Stanford with 15 kills, 4 service aces, and 11 digs while Caitie Baird had 13 kills, 7 digs, and 4 blocks. Iman Isanovic was the top performer for Arizona State with 13 kills, 8 digs, and 2 blocks. Stanford improves to 12-4 overall and 7-1 in the Pac-12 while Arizona State falls to 9-11 overall and 3-5 in the Pac-12.
The first set was tight from the jump as it was tied 9-9. Arizona State jumped out to a 9-6 lead only for Stanford to respond with three points in a row thanks to a service error and attack error from Arizona State along with a kill by McKenna Vicini. Arizona State would once again go up by three points (16-13) only for Stanford to win three points in a row thanks to two kills from Baird and a kill by Rubin. It was now tied 16-16.
It would remain a back and forth set as both teams were tied 22-22. From there, Arizona State would win three straight points off a kill by Claire Jeter followed by a pair of attack errors from Stanford. This gave Arizona State the opening set 25-22.
Stanford would get off to an early 7-3 lead in the second set after a service ace from Rubin followed by an attack error by Arizona State. Kami Miner went down early in the set after getting knocked in the head a bit by Elena Oglivie, resulting in Selina Xu coming in at setter while Miner was out. Miner would return in the middle of the set, but Xu did a nice job filling in, getting five assists during her time on the floor.
At the media timeout, Stanford led 15-14 after a kill by Sami Francis. It would continue to be a back and forth battle, once again leading to a 22-22 set. This time, it was Stanford that found a way to pull out the set. After being tied 23-23, Stanford won two points in a row off back-to-back service aces from Rubin, making it a 25-23 set victory. It was now tied at one set apiece.
In the third set, it was tight early on as Stanford led 6-4 following an attack error from Rubin. Stanford would then win four point in a row to lead 10-4 after Kendall Kipp got a service ace. This forced Arizona State to call time out. Coming out of the timeout, Rubin got a kill, making it an 11-4 Stanford lead.
Stanford continued to dominate, leading 20-9 after a kill from Vicini and back-to-back attack errors from Arizona State. Arizona State would win a few more points, but in the end, Stanford took the third set 25-16 after a kill from Francis to close out the set.
In the fourth set, Arizona State actually took an early 8-7 lead and later 9-8 lead. It looked like Arizona State would at least put some pressure on Stanford to close it out in four sets. Stanford would then win three straight points to lead 11-9. After three straight Stanford points off an attack error by Arizona State, a kill by Rubin, and a service ace by Kipp, it was a 15-11 Stanford lead at the media timeout. Kipp would get another service ace coming out of the timeout to make it a 16-11 lead for Stanford.
From there, Stanford gradually gained more separation and ended up taking the fourth set 25-16 after a kill from Baird to close it out. After two tight sets, Stanford controlled the next two sets to win the match in four decisive sets.
For Stanford, this weekend went as I predicted. They got the sweep at Arizona and defeated Arizona State in four sets. Both opponents put up a real fight, but Stanford in the end prevailed due to having too many weapons. To quote the band Heatwave, Stanford was too hot to handle.
After four straight matches away from The Farm, Stanford will return home for this upcoming weekend to face the Southern California schools. Up first will be UCLA on Friday at 8:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks.
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