Sept. 2, 2006
Provo, Utah - No. 4 Stanford (2-1) swept Virginia Commonwealth (3-2), 3-0, in the first of two matches for the Cardinal today at the BYU Tournament. Sophomores Cynthia Barboza and Foluke Akinradewo combined for 28 kills against the Rams, each hitting .522 and .400, respectively.
The Cardinal came out strong in game one with kills by Akinradewo and senior Kristin Richards to give Stanford a 5-4 lead. VCU kept up, registering three kills from De Borja, to take the lead at 10-8. A kill by Akinradewo spurred a 3-0 Cardinal run that brought the score to 11-10. Ana Luiza De Borja later tied the game at 15 with a kill for the Rams before VCU went on their own 4-0 streak to pull ahead, 18-15. The Cardinal came back to take the lead, 19-18, with two kills by Barboza and one from junior setter Bryn Kehoe. Stanford gapped the Rams, 24-21, thanks to two more kills by Barboza, then a kill from junior Franci Girard gave the Cardinal its largest lead of the game at 27-22. The Rams chipped away at the Cardinal lead with twoo kills, but Stanford bagged game one with a kill down the middle from Barboza, 30-28, her seventh of the game.
The Rams pulled into a brief lead, 7-4, to open game two before the Cardinal surged back to tie the game at 8 on a kill by Akinradewo. Akinradewo followed with another kill from the right side for the Cardinal lead, 9-8. Stanford then went on a 3-0 run with kills from Barboza and Akinradewo, but a Ram block tied the game again at 12. VCU hung within a point, but Stanford pulled away on a 7-0 run, 23-16, with yet another kill by Akinradewo. The Cardinal wrapped up game two on a kill by Barboza, 30-17.
Stanford cruised to a 3-0 lead in game three on another set of kills by Barboza and Akinradewo. VCU rallied back to tie the game at 6, then took the lead on an ace by Renata Salvatori. The Cardinal regained the lead with a 5-0 run on kills from senior Richards and senior Nji Nnamani, giving the Cardinal its largest lead of the game at 11-7. The Cardinal returned from a timeout to string together an impressive 7-1 streak, including two kills by Barboza, lengthening its lead to 18-8. Freshman Janet Okogbaa collected her first career kill to give the Cardinal a 19-9 lead. A powerful kill down the middle from Akinradewo brought the score to 24-11, then another kill from Okogbaa brought Stanford within two points of the match win, 28-14. An attack error by the Rams sealed the victory for the Cardinal, 30-16.
Barboza led the squad in kills with 15 and a .400 hitting percentage, while Akinradewo tallied 13 kills and a .522 hitting percentage. Sophomore Jessica Fishburn and Barboza collected 15 and 10 digs, respectively, while Kehoe contributed 34 assists. The Cardinal notched seven services aces, led by Nnamani with a career-high three aces.
Stanford returns to the court tonight at 5:00 pm (MT) versus Texas A&M Corpus Christi to wrap up BYU Tournament action.