On Friday, No. 6 Stanford women’s volleyball defeated Clemson 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-15) at home. Stanford middle blocker Sami Francis led the way for the Cardinal with 13 kills and five blocks on a .706 hitting percentage while outside hitters Ipar Kurt (11 kills) and Jordyn Harvey (10 kills & 8 digs) also had double digit kills. Stanford improves to 18-4 overall and 10-3 in the ACC while Clemson falls to 8-16 overall and 0-13 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Clemson at Stanford-Friday, November 8th
“Yeah, I just thought we executed at a high level from the beginning,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “We passed well, we got them out of system. They run a pretty sophisticated offense when they’re going and so I thought we did a nice job of mitigating that and then I don’t know what they hit, .177. Yeah, I thought we were really really efficient and scored at a really high rate as far as, I think we scored over fifty percent, so I think from a number standpoint how we played and we had good balance in our offense, we got Sami going, we got Lizzy going, I think it was nice to see that.”
“I think we did a great job of executing and I think in the second set, we had a little dip with that and so I think feel like they went on a little run,” Sami Francis added. “But besides that, I think we did a good job of just staying strong throughout the whole game, so it was fun.”
Stanford got off to a strong start in this one as they led 3-0 to begin the first set as Jordyn Harvey and Sami Francis had kills to get things going for the Cardinal. Clemson would win back-to-back points to make it 3-2 before Stanford went on another 3-0 run to lead 6-2 as Elia Rubin had a pair of kills along with a kill from Francis, all assisted by Kami Miner.
A bit later on in the set, Stanford led 13-6 following a kill from Lizzy Andrew and a service ace by Ipar Kurt. Stanford would lead 19-9 as they were on another 3-0 run following a service error by Clemson and back-to-back kills from Kurt. From there, Stanford would take the set 25-14 as a service ace by Jordyn Harvey closed out the set.
“She’s put up some big numbers,” Hambly said of Kurt. “She’s really been really efficient. She’s really bought into how we’re trying to play offensively in the decision making and I think Kami does an amazing job of getting her balls with tempo and she’s firing it around and she’s making good choices and I’d say this match she made, like every swing she took was a good choice and when you play that way and you play low error, you’re gonna be efficient.”
The second set was a bit tighter as Clemson jumped out to a 4-2 lead as McKenna Gildon had a service ace followed by an attack error from Stanford. Stanford would respond with a 4-0 run to lead 6-4 as Francis had three kills while Harvey had a service ace. It would remain a back and forth set for a little bit as it was tied up 12-12 after both teams traded points. Then, Stanford went on a 4-0 run to lead 16-12 as Harvey had a kill and service ace during the run.
After a kill by Mia McGrath for Clemson cut Stanford’s lead to four points (19-15), Stanford went on a 3-0 run to lead 22-15 as Lizzy Andrew and Jordyn Harvey had kills along with a service ace from Kami Miner. Stanford would take the set 25-18 as a kill by Harvey closed out the set. It was now a 2-0 lead for the Cardinal.
Clemson would jump out to an early 3-2 lead in the third set, but Stanford would respond with a 5-0 run as three of those points came from a kill by Francis while one of them came from a kill by Kurt. After a service error by Stanford it was 12-9, but Stanford would go on to win four straight points lead 16-9 as Rubin had back-to-back kills during the run while Elena Oglivie had a service ace. Stanford would go on to win the set 25-15 as they won six of the final seven points. Kurt had three kills during that stretch, so he was instrumental in helping them close out the match. It was a 3-0 sweep for the Cardinal.
“The second set we made some errors, the third set we didn’t,” Hambly said. “I thought we hit some balls out of bounds which gave them some points. The third set I thought we cleaned it up a little bit and I thought we served even a lot better and then they started making a few more errors and gave us some easy balls. Gave us some free balls and stuff, but I thought we executed well and they didn’t execute quite as well. We kept it, what to nine kills and it was a pretty low number of kills.”
“I feel like we’ve just been getting stronger,” Francis said. “We keep talking about this is the point in the season where teams differentiate themselves from others, so I feel like we just have to keep getting stronger and sustaining these wins. And so, I feel like our loss against Miami was just a learning experience for us and I feel like we’ve done a great job so far with FSU and Clemson of continuing to just come out fighting.”
For Stanford, this was a dominant performance from start to finish. They were the best team all night long and really did a great job of taking care of business. A big thing for Stanford in this match was getting their middle blockers going. On top of Sami Francis’ 13 kills, freshman middle blocker Lizzy Andrew had eight kills. Stanford saw an opportunity there and did a great job of taking advantage.
“We kind of exploited their system a little bit,” Hambly said of getting their middle blockers going. “They were going one on one, like trapping the outside, going one on one on the go. Sending two blockers to the outside, one on one on the middle, and so we kind of just took advantage of that. And then we also set Jordyn enough down the middle, too where she had like no one up on some of those. So, just kind of took advantage of the system that they’re playing.”
“I think our connection with Kami has gotten so much better we’ve put a lot of work in during practice,” Francis added. “But I feel like they left me and Lizzy one on one a lot, so I feel like we had the freedom to take a lot of swings…It’s been great. She [Lizzy] came in with a great skill set and Kevin has let me help mentor her along the way, which I feel like has improved my game as well. So, it’s just been great. I can’t wait to see her progress.”
Up next for Stanford is a home match against No. 16 Georgia Tech on Saturday. That will begin at 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX. Preview of the match is here.
“They’re very good,” Hambly said of Georgia Tech. “They’re very organized, they have a very good system, they play really hard, they play good D, they’re frustrating to play against. So I mean, I think we’re tied for the league right now, so it’s kind of a big match…We’re looking forward to what could be a good match. It’s really the best home match we’ve had in a long time. So we’re looking forward to that.”
“I think Georgia Tech is a great team,” Francis said. “I feel like we can’t underestimate them at all and I think everybody in the ACC is great and so I feel like they’re going to come out fighting and we have to do the same and I feel like back to back, you know what, it’s okay. We just have to recover well and come back fighting tomorrow…The recovery, I would say just getting good night’s sleep and we have to scout them, too and doing a good job of scout and staying on assignment and just communicating with how we feel.”
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