Sept. 8, 2001
College Station, TX - The ninth-ranked Stanford women's volleyball team won their sixth consecutive match tonight with a 3-1 victory over No. 18 Texas A&M in College Station, Texas before a crowd of 1,773. Game scores were 30-18, 30-24, 24-30, 30-23. The Cardinal run their record to 6-0 on the year while the Aggies fall to 6-1.
With tonight's win, Stanford goes to 4-0 this season against ranked opponents.
Freshman Ogonna Nnamani was named tournament MVP while teammates Robyn Lewis and Logan Tom were all-tournament selections.
The Cardinal put up a 5-0 lead to open game one, taking advantage of Aggie hitting errors and strong blocking. Stanford ran the score to 17-7 on a kill by senior Tara Conrad and reached 22-10 on a block solo by junior Ashley Ivy. The Aggies closed to within 10 at 26-16 on a service ace, but the Cardinal answered with a kill by freshman Ogonna Nnamani. Junior outside hitter Logan Tom would win the game for Stanford with a kill at 30-18. The Cardinal hit .462 for the game and did not commit a single hitting error (18-0-39). They outblocked the Aggies five to zero.
Game two remained fairly close with Stanford gaining a four point advantage at 12-8 on a Texas A&M hitting error. Another Aggie hitting error would put the Cardinal up 15-12. Stanford would extend its lead to 18-13 and a service ace by senior Emily Lawrence gave the Cardinal the 20-15 edge. Texas A&M would close the gap to three points at 20-23 on another service ace but Stanford would widen the gap to five points at 27-22 on another Aggie hitting error. At 27-24, the Cardinal would get three consecutive points to take game two 30-24.
Texas A&M came out of the break on fire and went up 7-1 in game three. The Aggies extended their lead to 14-6 and again at 18-8. After a Stanford timeout, the Cardinal rallied off three consecutive points to get to 11-18 and another four points to close within four at 15-19. A block solo by Logan Tom got Stanford within three points at 17-20 but two consecutive Cardinal hitting errors got the Aggies to 22-17. The two teams traded side outs for the rest of the game with Texas A&M pushing the match to game four with the 30-24 win.
The Cardinal came out tentative in game four falling behind 5-1 early in the game. With the Aggies leading 8-4, Stanford notched four consecutive points to tie the game at eight-all. The two teams tied again at 10-10. With Texas A&M leading by two at 12-10, the Cardinal rallied once again to go up 14-12. An ace by setter Robyn Lewis put Stanford up 18-13 and they would never look back. A Logan Tom service ace got the Cardinal to 20-14. The Aggies closed to within four at 20-24 but Stanford remained strong and went up 26-21 on a kill by Tara Conrad. The Cardinal would win the game and the match on a block by sophomore Jennifer Harvey and junior Ashley Ivy.
Logan Tom led the Cardinal with a match-high 21 kills and added 15 digs and four blocks. Ashley Ivy notched 11 kills (11-0-28) and a career-high 20 digs. Ogonna Nnamani had 13 kills and hit .387 for the match (13-1-31). Robyn Lewis tallied 57 assists and four blocks. Jennifer Harvey had a match-high seven blocks for the Cardinal while Tara Conrad added five.
For Texas A&M, Brandi Mount had 18 kills and 15 digs, followed by Melissa Munsch's 16 kills and three blocks.
For the match, Stanford hit .367 and outblocked the Aggies 15 to three.
The Cardinal are back in action next weekend as they open conference play against the Arizona schools at home in Maples Pavilion.