STANFORD, Calif. – The No. 5 Stanford women’s volleyball team knocked off No. 3 Washington in straight sets (25-19, 25-21, 25-22), Wednesday, at Maples Pavilion in Stanford, Calif. The Cardinal, which posted its 17th sweep of the season, moves to 21-5 overall and 14-3 in the Pac-12, while the Huskies (23-2) suffer just their second loss of the season falling to 15-2 in the conference.
The win was the first over a top-10 opponent this year for the Cardinal, which is now 19-0 on the season when winning the first two sets of a match. The battle of the top-two hitting teams in the conference went to Stanford Wednesday night as the Cardinal outhit the Huskies .259 to .167. UW held an 11.0 to 10.0 edge in blocks.
Senior Rachel Williams led Stanford offensively with 11 kills on 17 swings with just two errors to hit .529. She was one dig shy of a double-double and finished with four blocks and two aces. Sophomore middle blocker Inky Ajanaku registered 10 kills on a .400 hitting percentage to go with eight blocks, including two solo. Senior Carly Wopat added nine kills and two blocks, while sophomore Brittany Howard had eight kills and 10 digs.
Sophomore setter Madi Bugg finished with 38 assists, eight digs and three kills. She is just three assists shy of 2,000 for her career. Sophomore Jordan Burgess notched seven kills, four digs and tied her season-high with three blocks. Junior libero Kyle Gilbert finished with a match-high 16 digs and moved into fifth place past All-American Kerri Walsh (’00) on the Cardinal’s all-time digs list (1,295).
Stanford is now 26-1 overall at Maples Pavilion dating back to the start of the 2012 campaign. The Cardinal is just one game back of the Huskies for first place in the Pac-12 standings with three matches left in the regular season.
Stanford wraps-up the week on Friday, Nov. 22 at home against Washington State. First serve between the Cardinal and Cougars is set for 6 p.m. on the Pac-12 Networks.