Sept. 10, 2004
Stanford, Calif. - Ogonna Nnamani had 15 kills to lead the 12th-ranked Stanford women's volleyball team a 3-0 win over Eastern Washington to open the Stanford Invitational. Game scores were 30-24, 30-13, 34-32. The Cardinal improve to 3-1 on the year while the Eagles fall to 0-4.
Stanford jumped out to a 12-6 lead on a kill by Ogonna Nnamani. Eastern Washington took a timeout trailing 9-18 after an Eagle hitting error. The Cardinal took their first timeout when EWU cut the deficit to 12-18 after a Stanford hitting error. SU took their final timeout as the Eagles closed the game to 18-19 after an EWU service ace. Stanford reached game point on a kill by O. Nnamani at 29-24 and closed out the game 30-24 after an Eagles hitting error.
Game two remained close early with the Cardinal holding a slim 9-6 lead. Stanford then opened a 14-7 lead after another O. Nnamani kill. But the Eagles fought back to close the deficit to four at 12-16. The Cardinal rallied to pull away and go up 21-13. Stanford continued to roll reaching game point on a kill by Kristin Richards. A net violation by the Eagles gave the Cardinal the 30-13 victory to go up two games to none.
A service ace by Richards put the Cardinal up 10-6 in game three. EWU took their first timeout trailing 13-15 after a Stanford service error. The Eagles took their final timeout trailing 17-21 after a back row kill by Jennifer Hucke. Eastern Washington closed the gap to 22-23 after consecutive Cardinal hitting errors and tied the game on a kill by Deanna Albers. Stanford took their first timeout after falling behind 23-24 on another hitting error. A service ace by Courtney Schultz put the Cardinal up 28-25 but the Eagles fought back to close the gap to 27-28 and force a Stanford timeout. With the game tied 29-all, EWU reached game point on a kill by Brittney Page. The Eagles reached their third game point at 31-30 but an O. Nnamani kill even the score again. Bryn Kehoe served up an ace for the Cardinal to win game three 34-32.
Senior Ogonna Nnamani led the match with 15 kills while hitting at a .483 clip. Fellow senior Jennifer Hucke added 11 kills and four blocks.
EWU was led by Deanna Albers and Lizzy Mellor who had eight kills each.
In the earlier match, Penn State defeated San Francisco, 3-0. Syndie Nadeau and Ashley Pederson led the Nittany Lions with 11 kills each while Kaleena Walters had a team-leading 11 digs. The Dons were led by Stephanie Voelckers with 13 kills and Theresa Hart with 11 digs.
San Francisco will face Eastern Washington tomorrow at 5 p.m. with the Cardinal taking on the Nittany Lions at 7 p.m. in Burnham Pavilion.