Nov. 2, 2012
CORVALLIS, Ore. - The No. 1 Stanford women's volleyball team pushed its winning streak to 19 with a 25-18, 32-30, 25-14 sweep over Oregon State, Friday, in Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Ore. The Cardinal moves to 21-2 overall and 13-0 in the Pac-12, while the Beavers fall to 13-12 overall and 3-10 in the conference.
Freshman Brittany Howard led the Cardinal with her fifth double-double of the season. She finished with 14 kills and 13 digs. Junior middle blocker Carly Wopat added 12 kills on 17 swings with no errors for a career-high .706 hitting percentage. Junior Rachel Williams totaled eight kills, seven digs and three blocks for the Cardinal, while freshman Jordan Burgess tallied nine kills and 10 digs.
Senior Karissa Cook and freshman Madi Bugg recorded 21 and 18 assists for Stanford, respectively. Sophomore libero Kyle Gilbert turned her ninth match of the season reaching the 20-dig plateau. Stanford outhit OSU .261 to .151. The 19 match winning streak marks the longest for the Cardinal since the 2001 season.
Stanford took care of business in the opening set with a 25-18 win. The Cardinal hit .344 to .281 by the Beavers as both teams committed just three attack errors. The score was close early, but a 5-1 run midway through the set put it out of reach for OSU. Freshman Inky Ajanaku, Burgess and Wopat each had three kills to lead Stanford. Howard racked up five digs to lead the defense. Freshman Sara Almen led OSUwith four kills.
The Cardinal escaped with a 32-30 win in the second set. Stanford jumped out to an early lead, but OSU tied it at 21-21. From there, it was back-and-forth until the Cardinal came out on top. Stanford hit just .183 in the second while holding OSU to a .138 clip. Burgess and Howard had six kills each to lead the Cardinal. Williams added four kills in the set to go with five digs. Senior Camille Saxton led the Beavers, which posted seven blocks in the second, with six kills and eight digs.
Stanford completed the sweep with a 25-14 win in the third set. The Cardinal posted a .333 attack percentage while forcing the Beavers to hit .050. There were seven tie scores and three lead changes early, but Stanford capitalized on a 6-0 run to seal the win. Wopat and Howard were on fire in the set with six kills apiece. Gilbert collected nine digs to anchor the defense. Saxton finished with 11 kills and 13 digs to lead Oregon State.
Stanford wraps-up the weekend at Oregon, a No. 1 versus No. 2 showdown in Eugene, Ore. The Cardinal and Ducks square off on the Pac-12 Networks at 1 p.m.