Oct. 27, 2006
Tempe, Ariz. - The third-ranked Stanford volleyball team (18-2, 9-1) posted its eighth-straight Pac-10 win tonight with a three-game sweep of Arizona State in Tempe (30-24, 30-22, 30-24). Sophomore middle blocker Foluke Akinradewo led the Cardinal with 15 kills and three blocks, while sophomore outside hitter Cynthia Barboza tallied 11 kills. Senior Kristin Richards and sophomore Erin Waller also racked up double-figure kills, adding 10 apiece to the Cardinal effort.
In game one, the Sun Devils were on the board first, jumping out to a 3-1 lead on back-to-back kills by Paige Mittelstaedt. Akinradewo notched the first kill of the match for the Cardinal, pulling the team to within one, 4-3, and Waller drove home a kill to tie the game, 5-5. The teams traded points until a pair of Cardinal errors gave the Sun Devils a slight 9-7 advantage. Stanford battled back to tie the match, 12-12, when junior Franci Girard pounded down a kill and the Cardinal took its first lead on an Arizona State hitting error on the next point. Three straight points by the Cardinal, including a kill by Waller and a block by Girard and Richards, gave Stanford an 18-14 advantage. The Sun Devils put up a fight, however, with a 5-1 run to bring the game into a 19-19 tie. Two Akinradewo kills and an Arizona State hitting error forced the Sun Devils to take a timeout, however. After a kill by setter Bryn Kehoe put the Cardinal ahead 23-19, the home team took another timeout but came back to rattle off three straight points and pull within one, 23-22. Akinradewo and Barboza put down kills to make it 25-22, and two Waller kills contributed to a 28-24 Stanford advantage. A pair of Sun Devil attack errors ended the match, 30-24.
In the second game, the Cardinal was first on the board but Arizona State battled back to take a 2-1 lead. Richards pounded down a kill to make it 2-2 and served the next two points to increase the lead to 4-2. The Sun Devils came back and tied the match 5-5 on a block by Marina Mercer and Staci Smith, and took a brief lead before an Akinradewo kill put the match back into a 9-9 tie. The Cardinal strung together a 5-1 run to pull out a 14-10 lead and forced the Sun Devils into a timeout. The Sun Devils posted two more quick points, but the Cardinal went on a 3-1 run, capped by an Akinradewo kill from the middle, to take a 17-13 lead. Stanford maintained the lead, and began to pull away after Waller drove a kill to the left corner. Stanford rattled off four more points after Waller's kill to take a 25-17 lead. The teams traded points to make it 27-19 and after two ASU points, a tip by Kehoe gave the Cardinal a 28-21 lead. A pair of kills by Waller and Richards sealed the win for Stanford, 30-22.
Stanford took a 3-1 lead in the third game after a pair of attacking errors by the Sun Devils and never relinquished it. Waller registered a kill to give the Cardinal a 10-6 advantage and the team built a lead that waivered between three and four points for most of the game. A kill by Richards gave the Cardinal its first five-point lead, 14-9, but a kill by Nina Reeves pulled the Sun Devils back within four. Stanford extended the lead to 16-10 on a Barboza kill and held onto a solid lead for the rest of the game. A kill by senior Lizzie Suiter gave the Cardinal a 30-24 win in game three and completed the squad's third consecutive Pac-10 sweep.
Kehoe tallied 51 assists in the match, and sophomore libero Jessica Fishburn had 15 digs. Mittelstaedt led the Sun Devils with 15 kills.
The Cardinal returns to action on the road tomorrow night, looking to complete a season sweep of the Arizona Wildcats. The match is set for 7 p.m, at the McKale Center in Tucson.