Oct. 3, 2003
TUCSON, Ariz. - Junior outside hitter Ogonna Nnamani recorded a match-high 19 kills while hitting .576 as the No. 4 Stanford women's volleyball team defeated Arizona 3-1 tonight in Tucson, Arizona. Game scores were 23-30, 30-17, 30-18, 30-24.
Stanford improves to 12-2 overall, 6-0 in Pac-10 play while the Wildcats fall to 6-8, 0-4 in league action. The Cardinal extends its winning streak to a season-high six matches.
Stanford took a 5-3 lead in game one after a block by Jennifer Harvey and Jennifer Hucke. But the Wildcats would score the next four points to take the 7-5 advantage. The teams would trade points as Arizona had the 15-13 edge at the media timeout. The Wildcats would continue to roll and held a 21-16 lead to force a Cardinal timeout. Stanford pulled to within two trailing 20-22 but consecutive Arizona kills forced the final Cardinal timeout at 20-24. U of A would win game one 30-23 to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
Stanford opened game two with a 5-2 edge after a kill by Kristin Richards. The Cardinal would score five consecutive points to go ahead 10-3 and force a Wildcat timeout. Stanford built a 16-6 lead after an Arizona service error and reached 21-10 on a Sara McGee kill. A block solo by Richards put the Cardinal up 25-16 while an Ogonna Nnamani kill gave Stanford game point leading 29-17. A Wildcat hitting error closed out game two as the Cardinal won 30-17 to even up the match at one game each.
The Cardinal scored the first four points of game three but Arizona would come back to tie the game at six-all. With the game tied at nine-all, Stanford went on a four-point run to go ahead 13-9 and force a Wildcat timeout. An Ogonna Nnamani kill put SU up 18-11 while an Arizona blocking error gave the Cardinal a 24-15 lead. Stanford continued to roll reaching game point on a kill by Sara Dukes at 29-18. A Wildcat hitting error gave the Cardinal the 30-18 win.
With Stanford leading 7-6 in game four, the Cardinal strung together three points to take a 10-6 lead but the Wildcats came back to pull with one, trailing 10-11. Stanford took a 14-10 lead to force an Arizona timeout after a U of A hitting error. But the Cardinal would take their first timeout leading 17-14 after the 'Cats recorded back-to-back kills. With Stanford leading by two at 19-17, a quick three-point run gave SU a 22-17 advantage. A block by Jennifer Harvey and Ogonna Nnamani put Stanford at 28-20 while a kill by Sara Dukes gave the Cardinal match point at 29-23. Nnamani closed out the game with a kill at 30-24.
Kristin Richards added 13 kills for the Cardinal with setter Katie Goldhahn led the match with 13 digs. Jennifer Harvey notched a match-high five blocks for Stanford and teammate Sara Dukes added eight kills while hitting .583 on the night.
Stanford is next in action in a non-conference matchup on Tuesday night, October 7 against Pacific in Maples Pavilion at 7 p.m.