The No. 3-ranked Stanford women’s volleyball team (15-2, 8-0 Pac-12) won two road games against No. 12 ranked UCLA (12-5, 5-2 Pac-12) and No. 19 ranked USC (14-5, 6-2) during its road trip to Southern California this past weekend. These victories improve the active Cardinal win streak to 10 straight.
The team is currently undefeated in Pac-12 play and leads the conference with Utah standing at second place as of now.
The two-game weekend for the Cardinal was marked by dominant individual offensive performances. During Friday’s match against UCLA, standout sophomore wing Kathryn Plummer almost netted a triple double, accumulating 21 points, 10 digs and eight service aces. Despite the Cardinal’s relatively low overall hitting percentage (.181), the team rallied to overtake the Bruins 3-1.
The star of Sunday’s match against USC was redshirt senior Merete Lutz, who racked up a match-high 15 kills through four sets. Lutz hit .609 on the day with only one error and five blocks, leading the Cardinal past the Trojans. Other strong performances came from sophomore Audriana Fitzmorris and her 11 kills and eight blocks, as well as Plummer’s 13 kills. The Cardinal ended up with a total hitting percentage of .318, a marked improvement over Friday’s match, as they rolled over the Trojans 3-1.
Since recording her 1,000th career kill against Arizona State on Sept. 27, Lutz now has added 56 more kills to her career total.
The Trojans gave the Cardinal a scare in the fourth when a furious rally by USC gave it the lead. Stanford managed to tie the fourth 24-24 and won the set on an ace by freshman outside hitter Meghan McClure.
As the Cardinal look forward to Thursday’s home match against No. 14-ranked Washington, they’ll look to continue their run of dominance and pick up an 11th-straight win. The sets given up during their weekend games were just the second and third time respectively that the Cardinal allowed a set to be taken during their 15 total wins.
Thursday’s match against the Huskies will be streamed live on ESPNU at 8 p.m. as the Cardinal return to The Farm.
Contact Bobby Pragada at bpragada “at” stanford.edu