On Friday, No. 1 Stanford (18-0, 8-0 Pac-12) faced Colorado (12-8, 4-4) at the Coors Events Center in Boulder, Colorado, five days after its win against Arizona State. For the first time since its matches against Penn State and Illinois, Stanford went to five sets (18-25, 25-18, 23-25, 25-19, 15-7) before defeating the Buffs and continuing its torrid winning streak.
The first set started off tight, with Colorado and Stanford going kill-for-kill to open in a 1-1 tie. However, attack errors from Stanford and strong offensive plays from Colorado led Stanford to call its first timeout at 5-1. After the timeout, junior middle blocker Inky Ajanaku earned her first kill but a service ace and more kills from Colorado increased Colorado’s lead to 8-3. Despite impressive kills from Ajanaku, senior opposite Morgan Boukather, junior setter Madi Bugg and junior outside hitters Jordan Burgess and Brittany Howard along with attack errors by Colorado, Stanford was not able to overcome its deficit, losing the first set 25-18 and trailing Colorado 0-1 early in the match.
“We came here and practiced this morning and we had one of our best practices so we decided not to do a serve and pass,” Burgess said to the Pac-12 Networks. “We were feeling really, really good and they [Colorado] came out and shocked us a little bit.”
The second set saw a surge in momentum from Stanford, learning from and fixing its mistakes. In the beginning, the set was even at 4-4 until Bugg and Burgess scored points that put Stanford in the lead for just the second time since the match had begun. Boukather and junior middle blocker Megan McGehee helped increase Stanford’s lead with a major block.
Another lead change put Colorado ahead of Stanford by three until Boukather and sophomore middle blocker Merete Lutz greatly contributed to tying up the set. A strategic kill from Howard then put Stanford back in the lead at 17-16. Service and attack errors by Colorado and huge kills by Ajanaku and Boukather won Stanford its first set, tying the match 1-1.
Colorado would go on to win the third set by two points over Stanford, putting the Cardinal in a very unfamiliar, do-or-die situation on the brink of defeat. But the Cardinal made another comeback in the fourth set, due to the team’s ability to find holes in Colorado’s defense with Lutz making three kills and Bugg earning her first ace of the game. Stanford dominated the set, which helped the team stay alive to fight to the finish in the fifth and final set of the game.
In the fifth set, Stanford knew that it would need to start off strong in the best-to-15 final set in order to secure its victory over Colorado. The first kill by Burgess and attacking errors from Colorado put Stanford on a 3-0 run, and another kill from Boukather led the Cardinal to be first to five. Colorado tied the set at 5-5, but Howard kept Stanford ahead by one point with a powerful kill.
Continuous offensive errors by Colorado and a strong front from Ajanaku earned Stanford a five-point lead of 10-5 until Colorado called its first timeout of the set. However, Colorado’s attempt to slow down the momentum of Stanford post-timeout did not stop it from making more attack errors and getting blocked by Ajanaku and Howard to match point. Bugg’s final kill gave Stanford its 17th consecutive win for the season.
Overall, Stanford held an average hitting percentage of .319 with Ajanaku leading the offense with a hitting percentage of .481. She also contributed five blocks to the effort. Boukather and Howard scored 13 and 12 kills, respectively. Burgess achieved her ninth double-double of the season with 10 kills and 19 digs. Bugg recorded 17 digs, which matches her career-high, along with 51 assists and seven kills.
Sunday afternoon, No. 1 Stanford played against Utah (12-6, 2-5) for its 18th consecutive win of the season (25-20, 25-21, 23-25, 25-19), bringing the Cardinal to a Pac-12 record of 8-0 this season. The first two sets saw Stanford performing at its best with many impressive offensive plays from Ajanaku, Boukather, Burgess and Lutz. However, the third set saw more errors from Stanford that led to the team trailing behind Utah throughout the third set, which forced the match to go to a fourth set. But the outcome of set three did not deteriorate Stanford’s confidence as the Cardinal retreated back to their high momentum from the first two sets and utilized important team dynamics to beat Utah 25-19 in the last set of the match.
Boukather led the team with an astounding 18 kills and a .467 hitting percentage. Ajanaku and Lutz were very close behind with stellar hitting percentages of .444 and .417, respectively. Burgess scored her 10th double-double with 12 kills and 15 digs. Bugg recorded 52 assists, one service ace and 15 digs. Senior libero Kyle Gilbert also recorded one service ace and 11 digs on defense.
No. 1 Stanford will face No. 18 UCLA and No. 12 USC on Friday and Sunday, respectively, for its set of first home games since playing Oregon and Oregon State at the start of the month.
Contact Divine Edem at dedem ‘at’ stanford.edu.