Sept. 16, 2000
The 11th-ranked Stanford Cardinal women's held off a pesky Oregon State team to win 3-2 in continued Pac-10 action this evening. Game scores were 14-16, 14-16, 15-9, 15-7, 15-11.
In game one, Stanford jumped out to the early 5-2 lead but the Beavers fought back to tie the game at 5-5. With the game tied at six-all, OSU scored five straight points to take an 11-6 lead, before the Cardinal put together a run of their own to close the gap to 9-11. Stanford held off one game point to tie the game at 14-14 and held off two more game points before losing the game 14-16 on a kill by OSU's Michele Solomon.
Game two, the Cardinal once again took the early 5-2 lead, but this time they extended it to a 11-6, forcing Oregon State to take a time out. The Beavers would close the gap to 12-13, then tie the game at 13-13 on a kill by Michele Solomon. Stanford held off one game point to tie the game at 14-all but Oregon State would win the game on a Stanford hitting error to go up two games to none.
Game three saw Stanford build an 8-3 lead which they kept until the Beavers pulled to within 8-10. But the Cardinal settled down and went on to win 15-9 to force a game four.
The Cardinal stormed out of the gate in game four with something to prove building a 8-1 lead over Oregon State. The Beavers would call their second time out at 4-11 and moved to within 7-11 but Stanford would not be denied this time and cruised to a 15-7 win behind the offense and defense of freshman middle blocker Jenn Harvey.
Game five was dominated early by the Cardinal as they built a 12-2 lead, but OSU would not go down quietly and held off four Stanford match points before falling 15-11.
Stanford has never lost to Oregon State in the history of the program. The last time the Beavers won a game against the Cardinal was in 1993 (11/13) in Corvallis. The last time OSU pushed a match to five games was in 1986 (9/19) also in Corvallis.
Sophomore Ashley Ivy notched a match-high 20 kills and added 16 digs to the Cardinal cause. In all, four Stanford players notched double digits in kills including Tara Conrad (11), Sara Sandrik (13) and Jennifer Detmer (17). Five players tallied double digits in digs. Freshman Sara Dukes had 14 digs, sophomore Michelle Chambers added 15 while defensive specialist Emily Lawrence had 10 on the night. Freshman Jenn Harvey had three key service aces while Lawrence added two.
The Beavers were led by Gina Schmidt who had 20 kills and 16 digs on the night.
The Cardinal will face No. 6 USC in its Pac-10 home opener on Friday, September 22 at 7:30 p.m. in a nationally televised match on FOX Sports Net. Stanford will take on No. 7 UCLA on Saturday, September 23 at 7 p.m. in Maples Pavilion. For ticket information, please call the Stanford ticket office.