On Wednesday night, No. 1 Stanford (23-0, 13-0) played against No. 20 Arizona State (16-8, 5-3) at Maples Pavilion in a match that appeared to be an open and closed book through the first two sets, but became a dog fight in the end. Once again, Stanford came out on top (25-11, 25-16, 22-25, 22-25, 15-11), maintaining its unblemished record.
“The Pac-12 is always really tough, so you know even if you crush a team or do really well in the first two sets, they’ll probably come out fighting in the next one,” said junior outside hitter Jordan Burgess. “They really picked up their serving and our serve receive struggled a little bit more in the third set. It’s just little things adding up and then they get momentum and then it was a different game after that.”
In the first set, the Cardinal started off strong with blocks by Burgess and sophomore middle blocker Merete Lutz to lead 4-1. Junior middle blocker Inky Ajanaku scored a powerful kill, creating distance between Stanford and the Sun Devils. Service and offensive errors from ASU and blocks by Ajanaku and Bugg put Stanford up 8-4. Fiery kills from Burgess put Stanford up 10-5. Stanford’s offensive lines spotted open corners on Arizona State’s defense, putting the Cardinal up 12-6 before Arizona State called the first timeout of the game. However, the timeout did not slow down Stanford’s momentum, with Lutz recording three more kills for the Cardinal to make the score 15-8.
Despite some lapses on defense, Stanford remained in the lead with Ajanaku scoring a kill in the corner. Junior outside hitter Brittany Howard recorded the first service ace, putting Stanford up 18-11, causing Arizona State to call its second timeout of the match. Burgess gave Stanford its 19th point with a strategic tip on the outside. Ajanaku and Bugg notched kills and Ajanaku’s strategy of using Arizona State’s over passes gave Stanford match point. Bugg closed the set with a surprising kill, giving Stanford the first win of the match.
For the second set, Stanford held nothing back, with Burgess immediately scoring the first point of the set. Lutz took advantage of the scattered Arizona State defense to score two kills for Stanford. Stanford’s back row took an offensive as well as defensive approach, with senior opposite Morgan Boukather and Burgess taking swings at the ball. Miscommunication amongst the passers of Arizona State put Stanford up 5-3. However, Arizona State put up a much stronger fight against Stanford, evening the score at five — the first tie of the match. However, Ajanaku’s kill put Stanford on a roll, with the Cardinal fighting to widen the gap between themselves and the Sun Devils. With Stanford leading 9-5, Arizona State called another timeout.
Post-timeout, junior setter Madi Bugg made a kill off of the Sun Devils’ over pass and consecutive blocks by Ajanaku and Bugg gave Stanford a seven-point lead. Burgess made another clever tip, placing the ball directly in the hole of Arizona State’s defense, pushing the lead to 14-7. Boukather attacked the ball for a cross-court kill for the Cardinal. Arizona State came back with a few blocks and kills to decrease the gap with Stanford. But Stanford did not let that slow down its momentum, scoring five more points and bumping the score to 19-12 before the Sun Devils called another timeout.
A double block by Ajanaku and Bugg gave Stanford a 21-13 lead. Arizona State tried to slow down the players at the net with a tip, but Ajanaku managed to block its strategy, pushing Stanford up 22-13. Ajanaku scored another monstrous kill to the corner, leaving Stanford two points away from another set victory. Blocks by Burgess and Lutz earned Stanford another set win, with the final score of 25-16.
In the third set, junior middle blocker Megan McGehee served an ace for Stanford. The beginning of the set saw Stanford consistently going point-for-point with Arizona State because of small service errors and miscommunication on defense. Boukather got a kill off the block of Arizona State to put Stanford in the lead for the set. However, minor mistakes in the back row of the Cardinal gave Arizona State the lead back at 13-11, causing Stanford to call its first timeout of the match. Stanford was able to tie the game at 22-22, but tough offensive moves gave the Sun Devils their first set win of the match.
“They raised their game in sets three and four and we didn’t, and so that’s a problem for us and we need to go back and figure out what to do about that,” said head coach John Dunning. “People can look at that video and scout us now and see that’s how we beat them.”
The match went to a fifth set, giving Stanford little room for error. Although Stanford had two service errors, the team remained on the heels of Arizona State. A kill by Boukather and blocks from Howard and Lutz put Stanford back in the game. In addition, an incredibly close service ace by Burgess tied the game at seven. Defensive errors by ASU put the score at 10-8 and forced the Sun Devils to call another timeout. Strategic kills from Ajanaku put Stanford to match point. Ajanaku and Burgess made the final block, securing Stanford’s victory.
“Huge kudos to the [ASU] hitters, they were really changing up how they were attacking us,” Ajanaku said. “At first they were trying to go really sharp into the court and then made us start using our block, which is a great technique to use against us. It was the hitters; they were hitting for the rafters, just trying to touch hands.”
Ajanaku led the team in kills and hitting percentage, with a total of 20 kills and a .457 hitting percentage. Burgess recorded another double-double with 16 kills and 17 digs. Also, senior libero Kyle Gilbert and Bugg tallied 31 and 17 digs, respectively.
“Most of the people on the court are juniors and seniors and have been with each other for a while,” Burgess said. “I think we trust each other a lot and we don’t rely on one person to step up. Each person kind of makes a little bit of a mental shift to make things better and little things start clicking and we somehow pull it out. But that was tough, to be honest. They put up a great fight. In some ways it was probably one of the toughest matches because things weren’t clicking perfectly and we had to figure out how to win when a ton of things weren’t working.”
Stanford next plays on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Maples Pavilion against Arizona. The game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.
Contact Divine Edem at dedem ‘at’ stanford.edu.