On Sunday, No. 5 Stanford women’s volleyball swept Wake Forest 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-12). Stanford outside hitter Jordyn Harvey led the way for the Cardinal with nine kills while outside hitter Elia Rubin, outside hitter Ipar Kurt, and middle blocker Sami Francis each had seven kills. Stanford improves to 11-2 overall and 3-1 in the ACC while Wake Forest falls to 10-5 overall and 2-2 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Wake Forest at Stanford-Sunday, October 6th
“The thing I like most about this is I thought we fought hard the whole time,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “We played hard on defense and we competed the whole time. I felt like against NC State we were kind of just relying on our talent at times and we took it to these guys the whole time, which was good.”
Stanford got off to a strong start in the first set, leading 8-4 as Rubin and Francis each had a kill. Stanford would continue to dominate, leading 14-6 after back-to-back kills from Harvey. After a 3-0 run later on in the set that included a kill by Francis, Stanford led 21-10. Stanford would then go on to win the set 25-16 as their final two points came courtesy of kills by Kurt and Rubin.
Stanford got off to a strong start in the second set, leading 4-1 after back-to-back kills from Rubin and Harvey. After kills from Francis and Kurt, it was a 6-3 lead for Stanford. After a kill by Harvey, Stanford led 10-7. Wake Forest then won three of the next four points to make it 11-10 as Dior Charles got a nice kill. Stanford would then go on a pair of 3-0 runs, winning six of the next seven points to lead 17-11. After a kill by Lizzy Andrew and a service ace by Kami Miner, Stanford led 19-12. Stanford would then go on to win the set 25-17 as a kill by Rubin clinched the set.
“I thought we played good D and kept them off the net and I thought we just did a nice job of executing and had a good block on,” Hambly said of the way they contained Wake Forest’s offense. “It’s about it. Pretty simple.”
In the third set, Stanford dominated even more than they did in the first two sets, leading 8-4 after a kill by Kurt and an attack error by Wake Forest. After a kill by Dior, it was 8-5, but then Stanford went on a 7-0 run to lead 15-5. Miner had back-to-back service aces during the run. From there, Stanford just continued to cruise, winning the set 25-12 after back-to-back kills by Taylor Yu and Jordyn Harvey.
“All of them were pretty,” Hambly said of their sets. “16, 17, 12 is a pretty god job by our group and I think we made them earn the points that they got and sometimes when you get up 2-0, it’s not how it goes. And so I thought we made them earn the points they earned and then they gave us some points, which was nice. But I like the way we played this afternoon.”
For Stanford, this was a really nice win. It was one-way traffic for them from start to finish and they actually got stronger as the match went on. They once again got great kill distribution with everybody playing their part.
“It feels good,” Harvey said of getting the sweep. “Wake Forest, you know, always a respectful team. I think before the game we came out, we talked about we wanna really establish our will early and stay consistent throughout the game. I think we’ve had a few games here where we’ll start off really good and then we’ll drop a set because we’re not always staying focused. So, we made it really important to stay deliberate and stay focused through the entire match and throughout every point throughout the entire match. I think our whole team was so good at doing that. Staying focused and keeping every point consistent.”
Harvey was definitely the star of the match. She was excellent all day long. She was in the zone and did a nice job of capitalizing on the opportunities that she got.
“I think the last week, me and Kevin were kind of discussing a few things about my hitting and more just better decision making in terms of trying to keep the ball in play and I think I kind of shifted my mentality to that,” Harvey said. “To staying a little more consistent, not always just kind of swinging at balls and I think that helps a lot and so I think that definitely my attacking side and knowing where to hit on the spot on the court instead of just kind of going for broke at this point.”
A major reason why Stanford had such great kill distribution was the amazing setting of Kami Miner. She continues to be phenomenal in setting up her teammates for easy opportunites to get kills.
“Having a setter like Kami Miner is like having Tom Brady as your quarterback,” Harvey said. “It is honestly, it makes my job so much easier. It just makes me, like it opens up so many opportunities and like every single day at practice, I’m just constantly amazed by what Kami can do.
“And I always tell her: Kami, you’re the coolest person I’ve ever met. She’s my friend, so we kind of joke it off, and I’m like you know Kami, genuinely, watching you set and watching like the kind of opportunities that she gives me and the hitters and how much like her skillset and how much she does helps our team, it’s so amazing. Like, I just, Kami is so awesome. I can’t even describe how much I love Kami at this point.”
“I thought Kami did a really good job of distributing the ball and getting everyone involved and running an offense instead of just setting balls,” Hambly added. “And to credit to our passers to keep us in system as much as she could, but you just see a pretty good balance as far as swings. Elia had 20, you got 14, 15, 13. You know, you see it distributed pretty well across the board…Taylor Yu, she’s got a good serve and she’s a very very good defensive player and she’s in practice, she’s making us better. You got to see her set a little bit, which is cool. It’s cool to get her some time out there because she’s gonna be a nice player and she’ll be a nice player for our future.”
Up next for Stanford is a home match against Syracuse on Friday. That will begin at 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“Nothing yet,” Hambly said of what he knows about Syracuse. “So, I’ve never seen these teams…Tonight, we’ll start [watching film] tonight and have tomorrow and then figure it out. We’ll know everything we can in a week. Next week.”
“It’s cool, it’s definitely different compared to we’re used to playing more West Coast teams,” Harvey added. “But it’s cool just to kind of play against different teams that we’ve never really seen before, so it’s kind of a reset because like this whole year is just like, it’s a new team based on who we have on the court and it’s a new team based on the new conference, so that comes up, the new teams that we play against.
“And it kind of is just a new opportunity for us to go learn about other players and other teams kind of learn about us because teams like Wake Forest bring different style games compared to the teams that we played before in the Pac-12. So I just think it’s an awesome opportunity for us to keep learning.”
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