Sept. 29, 2005
Corvallis, Or - Oregon State has never beaten Stanford in women's volleyball and that statistic remained in full force on Thursday night as the third-ranked Cardinal scored a decisive 30-19, 30-15, 30-28 victory in a Pac-10 match at Gill Coliseum.
Stanford now is 41-0 against the Beavers in a series that started in 1981.
Once again, Stanford's defense proved to be a worthy adversary for the Beavers, who were playing their first home match of the year. OSU was held to a .047 hitting percentage. The Cardinal offense, meanwhile, was doing its part with a .322 hitting percentage.
Freshman outside hitter Cynthia Barboza and freshman middle blocker Foluke Akinradewo each collected a team-high 14 kills. Akinradewo hit .650 while Barboza checked in at .407.
The victory was Stanford's 13th straight to raise its season record to 14-1 overall and 3-0 in the Pac-10. OSU fell to 5-4 overall and 1-2 in the conference.
It took Stanford just three minutes in game one to build a 5-0 lead before the crowd could settle into their seats. The Cardinal stretched the lead to 7-0 before the Beavers scored their first point of the match on a Stanford hitting error. The Cardinal lead extended to ten points, 13-3, before OSU gained a little momentum. The Beavers dropped the Stanford lead to six points, 19-13. Stanford jumped the lead back to eight points, 26-18. Then at 28-19, Stanford closed out the first game (30-19) on a kill by middle blocker Lizzie Suiter and a kill by Barboza.
Oregon State may have jumped to a 1-0 lead to start game two, but that didn't last long as Stanford built a 7-2 lead to force OSU to call a timeout. The Beaver timeout proved to be ineffective as Stanford increased its margin to 13 points at 18-5, thus forcing OSU into another timeout. With Stanford in front at 29-15, the Cardinal closed out the game (30-19) on a block solo by Bryn Kehoe.
Game three was more Stanford domination. The Cardinal quickly jumped to a 7-2 lead, and advanced to margin to ten points at 23-13. The Beavers then played their best portion of the match as OSU cut the Cardinal margin from ten points to four points at 26-22. Oregon State crept even closer, but at 29-28, the Cardinal closed out the game (30-28) and the match on a net violation by the Beavers.
Stanford travels to Oregon (10-4 overall, 0-3 Pac-10) to meet the Ducks on Friday night (7:00 p.m.) at McArthur Court. The Cardinal has also dominated the series against the Ducks, holding a 40-2 advantage.
Cardinal Catalogue
Stanford's 13-match winning streak is the third longest in the 4-plus year tenure of head coach John Dunning ... In 2001, the Cardinal won 19 straight matches enroute to the NCAA title, and 15 straight wins in marching to the national title last year ... The school record is 28 straight wins during the 1997 season ... Kristin Richards has now moved into tenth place on Stanford's career digs list ... With eleven digs against Oregon State on Thursday night, Richards now has 1,022 digs to displace Teresa Smith (1,019, 1984-87).
Stanford (14-1, 3-0)303030
Oregon State (5-4, 1-2)191528
Promotion Potpourri
Stanford is enjoying another outstanding women's volleyball season, and there are seven more matches on the home schedule at Maples Pavilion including an Oct. 8 Pac-10 match against second-ranked and unbeaten Washington (10-0) ... A Block Plan for the remaining seven home matches is being offered for $65 ... All Block Plan seats are reserved, and that includes matches against second-ranked and unbeaten Washington (Oct. 8, 7:00 p.m.) and Bay Area rival California (Nov. 18, 7:0 p.m.) ... For more information, call 1-800-STANFORD, or go to the Stanford website at www.gostanford.com, and link to the women's volleyball page ... On the right side of the page under Cardinal Clips, look for Seven-Match Block Plan Ticket Special.
Daily Diary
A beautiful, warm, sunny day greeted the Stanford women's volleyball team as it boarded the bus to take them to a pancake breakfast in downtown Eugene ... Once again, it's a small world ... As the team, coaches and staff sat down for a meal, a customer wearing a Stanford hat was leaving the restaurant along with his wife ... The coaching staff struck up a conversation with the two people, and associate head coach Denise Corlett offered them a couple tickets to Friday's match against Oregon ... The two people accepted the ticket offer, and asked to leave the tickets at "will call" under the name of "Kribel; Joel Kribel" ... Yes, that was Joel Kribel, who was an All-American golfer for Stanford a couple years ago, and is now in town this week to play in a Nationwide Golf Tournament at Shadow Hills Country Club in nearby Junction City ... Also entered in the tournament is another former Cardinal standout, Casey Martin, who calls Eugene his hometown ... The team was in a great mood as it prepared for Thursday's match against Oregon State ... Junior outside hitter Nji Nnamani is always keeping everybody in a good mood with her outgoing personality and her ability to sing a song ... She is pleasant with everybody, and her enthusiasm for life is contagious ... It's hard to imagine Nji ever being in a bad mood ... The 60-minute bus ride from Eugene to Corvallis takes the team up Highway 99 through such small towns as Monroe, Cheshire, Junction City, and then to Corvallis ... An Italian pre-game meal is served on the bus ride to Corvallis ... It's a scenic ride through the Oregon countryside, but in the distance dark clouds are approaching ... Rain is in the forecast for Friday ... GOOD NIGHT!!!