Nov. 2, 2007
Stanford, Calif. - Senior middle blocker Franci Girard recorded one of her best offensive nights of the season, pounding 11 kills in 19 tries (.526), and the Stanford women's volleyball team swept the Oregon State Beavers tonight, 30-18, 30-19, 30-20 in Maples Pavilion. The sweep was Stanford's 16th of the year, and improves the team to 22-2 overall and 11-2 in Pac-10 play. The Beavers fall to 10-15, 3-10 Pac-10.
Freshman Alix Klineman paced the Cardinal with 15 kills, 10 digs and three blocks, marking her fifth career double-double. Klineman hit .458, and was among six Cardinal players who finished the night above .400. Girard's 11 kills marked the third time in four matches that the senior has been in double-figures, while freshman Cassidy Lichtman's three service aces were a career high. Stanford hit .435, one of its best clips of the year, and held the Beavers to just .173. Jill Sawatzky led OSU with 12 kills.
Klineman was responsible for four quick Cardinal points in game one, tallying two kills, a solo block and an ace to help Stanford race out to a 7-1 lead and force an immediate OSU timeout. The Cardinal took one more point out of the timeout to push the lead to 8-1, and a few points later Klineman led the charge in a 5-1 Stanford run to make it 14-6. Oregon State strung together three points to trim the lead to five, but Stanford ran from there. The Cardinal put up three points to every one for Oregon State, pushing the lead to nine at 19-10, and cruising to double-digits on a Klineman kill at 23-13. Girard put down a pair of consecutive kills to boost the lead to a dozen at 27-15, and a block by Foluke Akinradewo and Klineman gave Stanford game point, 29-17. The 12th Beaver hitting error of the game ended things at 30-18. Klineman led the Cardinal with five kills and three blocks in the game, and the Cardinal out-hit the Beavers, .478 to -.029.
OSU took the first point of game two, and kept the Cardinal from running away right off the bat. The game went into its last tie at 11-11, however, and from there it was all Cardinal. Sophomore middle blocker Janet Okogbaa capped the first string of Stanford points at 14-11, and Klineman added a kill to finish another spurt at 19-15. After just one Beaver point, Lichtman stepped back and served three aces and six straight points to turn the game into a rout. Lichtman's last ace made it 25-16, and a Beaver ball-handling error a few points later extended the lead to ten, 28-18. Stanford took game point on an OSU hitting error at 29-19, and Erin Waller drove down a ball to end the game, 30-19. Stanford out-hit Oregon State .500 to .237 in the game, led by the four kills of Girard.
The Beavers took two brief leads to start game three, but two Klineman kills and four Cardinal points quickly righted things for the Cardinal, 7-4. Stanford earned points in sets of two, pushing the lead to five at 16-11 and six at 18-12. The Beavers whittled the lead to four, but that was the closest they would come. Cynthia Barboza ripped back-to-back kills, Girard tacked on another to make it 23-16, and Okogbaa added her sixth kill of the match to make it 28-19. Alex Fisher recorded her second kill of the night to give Stanford game point, and Barboza put up her second solo block to complete the Cardinal sweep, 30-20. Stanford out-hit Oregon State .366 to .297 in the final game.
Stanford heads to the Northwest next week to meet No. 4 Washington and Washington State. On Thursday, the Cardinal will meet the Huskies at Bank of America Arena at 7 p.m., and on Friday, first serve is set for 8:30 p.m. at Bohler Gym in Pullman.