Oct. 12, 2001
Los Angeles, Calif. - The fourth-ranked Stanford women's volleyball team fell to the third-ranked USC Trojans, 3-1, tonight in the Lyons Center in Los Angeles, Calif. Game scores were 30-28, 28-30, 22-30, 26-30.
The Cardinal is now 14-2 on the year, 7-1 in the Pac-10 while the Trojans improve to 11-1 overall, 6-0 in conference action.
Stanford took the early 8-5 lead on a service ace by outside hitter Logan Tom while a kill by freshman Ogonna Nnamani gave the Cardinal the 11-8 advantage. USC pulled within one at 11-12 on a Stanford hitting error, but the Cardinal put together a string of three points to go up 15-11. They extended the lead to 19-13 on a kill by Ashley Ivy. The Trojans fought back behind the tough serving of Nicole Davis and took the lead 20-19. With the Cardinal trailing 22-24, three straight Logan Tom kills put Stanford up 25-24, forcing a USC timeout. At 28-all, Stanford got a kill from Nnamani and a Trojan hitting error to win game one, 30-28.
The Cardinal jumped out to the early 6-1 lead in game two and led 8-4 before the serving of Nicole Davis once again tripped up Stanford, giving the Trojans to 9-8 lead. USC built a 17-13 lead before Stanford strung together four points to tie the game up at 17-all. The game remained tight until, at 26-all, USC rallied off three straight points to reach game point at 29-26. Stanford held off two game points to close to 28-29 but fell to the Trojans 28-30 on an April Ross kill. Stanford hit .366 for the game despite the loss.
Game three see-sawed back and forth with neither team gaining more than a two point advantage. With the score tied at 13-all, USC went on a four point run to go up 17-13. Stanford clawed back to tie the game at 17-all on a USC error. But the Trojans slowly began to pull away, taking the 23-18 lead which forced a Stanford timeout. After a Jennifer Harvey kill, USC went on a six point run to reach game point at 29-19. The Cardinal held off three game points before falling 30-22.
USC took a commanding 8-2 lead to open game four and never looked back. The Trojans continued to outpace Stanford, leading 15-9 on a kill by Keao Burdine. USC went up by nine at 25-16 and reached game and match point at 29-24. Once again, the Cardinal held off two game points before falling 30-26.
Stanford was led by outside hitter Logan Tom's match-high 21 kills. Freshman Ogonna Nnamani had 13 kills and eight digs on the night. Senior Tara Conrad contributed seven kills and a match-high six blocks. Sophomore Sara McGee added seven kills and four blocks.
Four USC players ended the night in double figures in kills - April Ross (20), Keao Burdine (20), Jennifer Pahl (10) and Katie Olsovsky (10). Nicole Davis had seven service aces.