Down But Not OutDown But Not Out
Mike Rasay
Women's Volleyball

Down But Not Out

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Box Score

MADISON, Wis. – Redshirt senior Inky Ajanaku refused to have her career come to an end Saturday, rallying the Cardinal from down 0-2 to an 18-25, 24-26, 25-21, 25-21, 15-9 win over third-seeded Wisconsin.
 
Ajanaku, the Madison Regional MVP, recorded a season-high 20 kills on .447 hitting to go with a career-high 11 blocks. Her first block of the night was the 600th of her career. She now has 610 and joins Kim Oden (1982-85), Bev Oden (1989-92) and Carly Wopat (2010-13) as the only players in program history to reach the 600-blocks plateau.
 
Freshman Kathryn Plummer posted 12 kills, including the final point to send Stanford to its nation-best 20th NCAA Final Four. Freshman libero Morgan Hentz racked-up a career-high 30 digs to go with four assists and a kill. Plummer and Hentz joined Ajanaku on the all-tournament team.
 
Head coach John Dunning is making his 12th Final Four appearance overall and his eighth in 16 seasons at the helm of the Cardinal program. Stanford now has 113 NCAA Tournament victories, the most in the nation. Dunning is 89-27 all-time in the postseason.
 
"Wisconsin is really, really a great team, so for us to be sitting here is an honor," said Dunning in the postmatch press conference.  "I thought our team played really hard tonight and played with courage when they had to. We hadn't been down two sets and come back and won a match this year. And I think we knew that coming out for the third game -- or the third set that maybe we'd learned enough and that we were ready for the fight that was ahead of us, and we were. I'm very proud of them."
 
Stanford, which had only lost the first two sets one other time this season (a 3-1 loss to Arizona), hit .271 for the match, while holding Wisconsin to a .244 clip. The Cardinal, which leads the nation in blocks per set (3.34) totaled 18.0 against the Badgers.
 
"After the second set, we went back into the third and I looked in everybody's eyes, and I saw like they were ready; they were ready to be there all night and they were ready to fight," Ajanaku described after the match. "And that's just having confidence in yourselves, and I think our freshmen are finally getting that and they are recognizing how good we all know that they are.
 
"And being able to play to your potential, just pushing out all the doubt, that's what changed. And it's something that takes a lot of maturity, and we were having to do it really early, and I'm really proud of them for doing that."
 

 
Freshman setter Jenna Gray matched her career-high with 57 assists and set a career-best in blocks with six. Plummer added 10 digs to post her team-best 10th double-double. Redshirt junior Merete Lutz added 12 kills on .321 hitting and three blocks, while Ivana Vanjak had nine kills.
 
Freshman middle blocker Audriana Fitzmorris was solid all night for the Cardinal, tallying 10 kills on .333 hitting, six blocks (three solo), a career-high seven digs and an ace. Sophomore defensive specialist Halland McKenna added eight digs and an ace on some tough serving, while senior Kelsey Humphreys had four digs and an ace. Humphreys also notched her first block of the season, getting stuck in the front row after a substitution was too late.
 
Wisconsin senior All-America setter Lauren Carlini directed the Badgers with 57 assists, seven kills and seven digs. Middle blocker Haleigh Nelson, also a senior, totaled 15 kills on .560 hitting and four blocks, while Lauryn Gillis also notched 15 kills for the Badgers.
 
Stanford will play in the first national semifinal on Thursday, Dec. 15 at 4 p.m. PT at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio against No. 2 seed Minnesota. No. 1 seed Nebraska and No. 4 seed Texas will face off in the other national semifinal at 6:30 p.m. PT. Both matches will air on ESPN2.