MADISON, Wis. - No. 9 Stanford outlasted No. 16 Florida State 25-27, 25-20, 25-9, 25-23 on Friday afternoon at UW Fieldhouse, punching its ticket to the program's first NCAA Regional final since 2014 and 12th since the current NCAA championship format was put in place (1998).
Standing in the way between Stanford (24-7) and its 20th NCAA Final Four appearance will be regional host No. 3 Wisconsin (28-4). The Cardinal and Badgers square off Saturday, Dec. 10, at 3 p.m. PT in the regional final on ESPNU.
Redshirt senior Inky Ajanaku tallied a season-high 17 kills on a .538 hitting percentage. The Tulsa, Oklahoma native also recorded four blocks and is just one shy of reaching 600 for her career. She will have the chance to become just the fourth player in program history to reach the 600 blocks plateau on Saturday.
Freshman Kathryn Plummer (15) and redshirt junior Merete Lutz (10) added double-digit kills for the Cardinal, while freshman Jenna Gray contributed 11 digs and freshman Audriana Fitzmorris chipped in with seven blocks.
Gray controlled the Cardinal offense, which hit .247 for the match, with 45 assists. She also had a career-high five kills and her fifth double-double of the season. Freshman libero Morgan Hentz matched her career-high with 27 digs for the third time this season and put down a career-high five aces. Stanford held Florida State to a .115 attack percentage and out blocked the Seminoles, 11.0 to 3.0.
Florida State (26-6) gained an early advantage, capturing a hard-fought first set at 27-25. It was the first time Stanford had dropped a set since a 3-2 loss to UCLA back on Nov. 12, with the Cardinal sweeping its previous six opponents.
After countering with a 25-20 victory in the second set, Stanford seized momentum with a convincing 25-9 triumph in the third set. In that pivotal frame, the Cardinal raced out to a 14-6 lead, tallied the next five points and closed it out on the strength of a kill from Lutz from the middle.
How dominant was Stanford in the third set? Florida State's nine points were the fewest allowed by Stanford in NCAA Tournament competition since Dec. 5, 2008, when the Cardinal dominated Albany 25-9 in the first set of a sweep.
The competitive fourth set featured 15 ties and seven lead changes. Trailing 22-20 and 23-22, the Cardinal won the final three points of the set, including the game-winner on an attack error by the Seminoles.