On Friday, #8 Stanford women’s volleyball defeated Utah 3-1 (25-22, 25-15, 22-25, 25-11) at home. Kendall Kipp exploded for 21 kills, leading the way for Stanford while McKenna Vicini had 8 kills on a .800 hitting percentage. KJ Burgess and Allie Olsen each had 8 kills for Utah. Stanford improves to 17-4 overall and 12-1 in the Pac-12 while Utah falls to 13-11 overall and 6-7 in the Pac-12.
“I thought in the first set we executed at a high level for a long time and then we kinda let up just a little bit,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “And then picked it up, played much better in the second set. In the third set I thought we were kinda waiting around for them to give us that set and they weren’t gonna do it and they made a few changes that were really good, changed a couple personnel and they executed. We struggled a little bit offensively and defensively against them in that set. But then we turned it around and kinda tried to assert our will on that team and I thought we did a nice job of that.”
Early on, it was a tight match as it was tied 4-4 in the first set. After a kill by Kipp and an attack error by Utah, it was a 6-4 lead for Stanford and they would trade points for a bit as Stanford would lead 10-8 after a kill by Kami Miner. Utah would win two straight points to tie it up 10-10 after kills from KJ Burgess and Lauren Jardine.
After it was tied 11-11, Stanford went on a 5-0 run to lead 16-11. Caitie Baird and Elia Rubin each had two kills in that run while Kipp had one. After an attack error by Utah, it was a 19-12 lead for Stanford fresh out of a timeout. To Utah’s credit, they battled back to get within two points (22-20) before Miner got a kill off an assist from Kipp to make it 23-20. From there, Stanford would hang on to win the set 25-22 as a Utah attack error gave them the set after a kill by Vicini gave them set point.
“The key to that is a lot of it just comes from my teammates giving me the opportunity to have a high hitting percentage because we have great hitters all around,” Vicini said of her .800 hitting percentage. “So, that really spreads out the other teams defense and makes it a little bit easier for me to have open court. But also that’s something that we’re working on every day. I really just try to see where the defenders are on the other side and see where the space is. We see space, hit space. That’s kinda the mindset.”
The second set was very similar to the first set early on as it was tied 5-5 and then later 10-10. Neither team was able to pull ahead up to this point. Stanford would start to gain a bit of separation, leading 15-12 after a kill by Kipp. Utah would get within two points 17-15 before Stanford went on an 8-0 tear to win the set 25-15. Rubin got an ace, Baird got a kill, and then a whole bunch of Utah attack errors.
The third set once again was tight as it was tied 5-5. Back-to-back kills from Allie Olsen and Madelyn Robinson made it an 8-6 lead for Utah. Utah would extend their lead 13-10 after a bad set by Miner and then 14-11 after they traded points.
Stanford then went on a 3-0 run to tie it up 14-14 after a kill by Vicini, an attack error by Robinson, and a kill by Kipp. A service ace by Kelly Belardi tied it up 18-18 for Stanford and things remained tied 21-21 before Utah went on a 2-0 run to lead 24-21 after a kill by Robinson and back-to-back attack errors by Kipp. Utah would hang on to win the set 25-22, getting on the board.
In the fourth set, Stanford turned on the jets, going up 5-1 after three straight kills from Miner, Vicini, and Kipp. After a kill from Rubin, it was a 10-3 lead for Stanford. Stanford later went on a 7-0 run to lead 24-9 as they really put the hammer down on Utah. From there, it was a 25-11 victory in the fourth set as an attack error from Utah gave Stanford the set and match.
“Some of it we’re trying to figure them out,” Hambly said of why his team was able to breeze in the fourth set. “How to defend them and we get stuff dialed in defensively we can be really good because we have some terminal hitters that in transition. But, I thought it was blocking defense did a really nice job and the first three points they had were a missed serve and a missed serve and kind of a garbage kill that trickled along the net and fell in when we were already up 11-3.
“And it was like, because we were just defending the heck out of them and I think we can get going defensively and that’s something we’ve been striving really hard to be: A great defensive team. The top teams in the country are great defensive teams. And we are striving to be both. Like be both great defense and great offense. So we’re working through that.”
“We’ve just realized that every team that we’re gonna play is going to be playing their absolute best against us,” Vicini added. “So, we can’t expect any points to be given to us and that just means that we have to be fighting for every point like it’s a point in the national championship. It’s about respecting the game, respecting the team that we’re playing, and really just honing in on everything that we’ve been working on all season and that’s taking care of minor details and really just going for it. Everything with all of our effort.”
For Stanford, they did what they were supposed to do. They won with relative ease. After giving up the third set, they dialed back in the fourth set and got the job done. Kipp was sensational and then the rest of her teammates did enough to get the win without having it go to a fifth set.
“Yeah, we would like to see more balance”, Hambly said of Kipp having a disproportionate amount of the kills. “We’ve typically had more balance than that. Our outsides struggled a little bit. We struggled last time we played them and then we didn’t pass really well enough to get to the middles. And, so we ended up riding Kipp a little bit. Which is nice to have her to be able to do that. But, we’d rather not play that style.”
Stanford was once again without Sami Francis in this match. She was on the sidelines, but not available to play. It is not known when she’ll be back. In the meantime, the other middle blockers, especially Vicini have had to really step up in her absence.
“Absolutely, I mean obviously Sami is a huge presence on the court,” Vicini said. “Both as a player and just the energy that she gives. So, in both aspects we’re having to figure out ways where middles can score points without Sami because Sami is an amazing side hitter and front of setter hitter. But, we’ve really been working in practice on figuring out how Annabelle and I can step up or earn more points and then also just find ways to bring all the energy that Sami also brought whenever she was playing.”
Up next for Stanford will be a home match on Sunday against Colorado. That will begin at 12:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Mountain.
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