The No. 8 Stanford women’s volleyball team (7-3, 1-1 Pac-12) travels to the desert on Wednesday to take on No. 14 Arizona (11-3, 1-1).
The Cardinal are coming off a heartbreaking five-set loss to undefeated No. 3 USC last Sunday. The teams were tied at 13-13 in the fifth before the Women of Troy pulled away for the victory. The defeat was the team’s first at home since 2013, a testament to the program’s success playing in Maples Pavilion.
The loss was also the team’s first in over two weeks, when the team suffered back-to-back losses to No. 1 Penn State and unranked North Carolina.
Although Stanford hasn’t lost to Arizona in nearly 10 years, this year’s Wildcat squad will be sure to challenge the Cardinal. The team is hot off a 3-0 victory over No. 23 Oregon, and its only loss at home this season was in five sets to No. 3 Texas.
The Wildcats also lead the conference in kills (14.67), assists (13.59) and digs (16.67) per set. The attack runs through All-Pac-12 first team setter Penina Snuka, as she dishes out just over 11 assists per set, putting her at 16th best in the country. Meanwhile, junior outside hitter Kalei Mau has been among the best in the nation so far this season, averaging 4.53 kills per set.
The fierce Arizona attack is likely to be problematic for Stanford, whose inexperienced defense has struggled so far this year. However, the Cardinal should be able to match Arizona blow for blow offensively, with senior outsides Jordan Burgess and Brittany Howard and freshman opposite Hayley Hodson dominating in front of the net. Hodson, the No. 1 recruit in the country, according to Volleyball Magazine, leads the Cardinal with 3.44 kills per set and posted 18 and 14 kills, respectively, in her last two matches.
Meanwhile, Howard will aim to achieve a monumental milestone this week, as she nears the 1000 career kill and dig marks. Howard currently has 979 kills and 972 digs and is likely to reach four digits within the next two to three games. The senior would become just the 10th Stanford player to reach the illustrious benchmark, which classmate Burgess achieved during the NCAA tournament last year.
The match against Arizona is the first of two on the road for the Cardinal. The first serve will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Wells Fargo Arena. The team will then make the short trip to Tempe on Friday to take on the Arizona State Sun Devils at 6 p.m. Both matches will be featured on Pac-12 Networks.
Contact Neel Ramachandran at neelr ‘at’ stanford.edu.