The No. 4 Stanford women’s volleyball team (18-2, 9-2 Pac-10) bounced back from a tough loss last weekend with consecutive sweeps of No. 18 Oregon (16-7, 4-7) and Oregon State (8-17, 1-10) to open up the second half of conference play.
Sophomore setter Karissa Cook made her return debut in Eugene Friday night to help bring down the Ducks in straight sets, 25-17, 25-16, 25-22. The return to a 6-2 setting offense allowed senior setter/opposite Cassidy Lichtman to resume her utility role. Lichtman picked up 20 assists, five digs and five kills in three sets.
Oregon setter Lauren Plum worked for 32 assists, splitting the offense between sophomore outside hitters Kat Fischer and Alaina Bergsma and senior opposite Heather Meyers. Meyers, who has been a primary hitter for the Ducks since her freshman year, was held to a .115 hitting percentage on the night, but still brought Oregon’s hitting percentage up to .078.
Low hitting percentages characterized the Oregon offense in the first set. The Ducks called a time out after stringing together three consecutive hitting errors and posted a fourth upon returning to the court to put Stanford up 18-12.
The Cardinal gained an early lead in the second and maintained it throughout the set, as senior libero Gabi Ailes served out two four-point stretches to give Stanford its lead. Defense by Ailes, Cook and senior outside hitter Alix Klineman was supplemented by an unbeatable block. Freshman middle blocker Carly Wopat collected 8 blocks on the match.
Oregon took the lead at 21-20 in the third set, forcing Stanford head coach John Dunning to call his first and only timeout of the match. Cook proceeded to rattle off four serves before Klineman put down a kill to end the match.
Early offensive frustration yielded 28 total hitting errors from the Ducks to the minimal 10 errors posted by Stanford. Because Oregon had difficulty siding out first-strike, the team ended up taking a full 29 swings more than the Cardinal, who still strung together only four fewer kills than the Ducks on the match.
With Ailes gathering 23 digs in three sets, Stanford’s defense pushed back the Oregon offense, creating opportunities to force hitting errors. In addition to having already broken records for average digs per set, season digs and career digs for the Stanford volleyball program, Ailes has picked 1,955 digs to date after totaling 41 for the weekend.
After a day of rest in Eugene, the Card headed north to Corvallis yesterday morning for a Halloween battle against a spirited orange-and-black OSU crowd of 850 fans.
Stanford took an early lead in the first set that was quickly squandered with a service error, two attack errors and a reception error. A block by junior Stephanie Browne and sophomore Hayley Spelman gave the Card the boost to force nine hitting errors out of the Beavers in the first, yielding a swift 25-17 win.
Timely kills by Beaver outside hitters Jill Sawatzky and Camille Saxton matched six attack errors by the Cardinal early in the second to keep OSU in contention throughout the set. The Beavers held four leads mid-set until a service error by setter Megan McBride and another block by Browne and Spelman forced OSU to call a timeout. A pair of kills from freshman outside hitter Rachel Williams and Klineman allowed Stanford to pull ahead and take the set 25-21.
The Beavers continued to spread the offense between Saxton, Dre Shaw, and Ashley Eneliko in the third, but the setters pushed sets out to Sawatzky during crucial points in the set. While Sawatzky delivered 14 kills on the match, the Beaver offense was held to a .127 hitting percentage as Ailes picked up 18 more digs and the Card put down nine blocks.
Cook and Lichtman each put up 19 assists, enabling Klineman, Lichtman and Williams to get 31 combined kills in the three sets. Led by Klineman, who continues to top the conference charts for kills earned and points earned, the Card continues to lead the nation in team hitting percentage.
Stanford remains second to Cal in the conference as it continues the quest for its fifth consecutive Pac-10 title.
The team returns to Maples Pavilion next weekend to host UCLA at on Friday at 7 p.m. on Friday and Southern California on Sunday at 1 p.m.