Big Spike in BerkeleyBig Spike in Berkeley
Mike Rasay/isiphotos.com
Women's Volleyball

Big Spike in Berkeley


No. 2 Stanford (8-1) at California (8-3) | Wednesday • 8 p.m.
Television • Pac-12 Network
Live Statistics • GoStanford.com


No. 2 Stanford (8-1) vs. Arizona (11-1) | Sunday • 12 p.m. 
Television • Pac-12 Network
Live Statistics • GoStanford.com
Complete Release (PDF)
Facebook |Twitter| Instagram


PROMOTIONS: Sunday's match is Scout Day. All boy scouts or girl scouts can receive a discounted ticket and a free Stanford patch while supplies last. Call 1-800-STANFORD for more information. The team will also be signing postmatch autographs. For all of this season's promotions, click here.
 


SCOUTING CALIFORNIA: Cal went 8-3 during the nonconference portion of its schedule. The Golden Bears are hitting .245 as a team and rank fourth in the Pac-12 with a .170 opponent hitting percentage and sixth with 1.39 aces per set. Sophomore outside hitter Mima Mirkovic leads the team with 3.20 kills, 3.85 digs and 0.34 aces per set. Sophomore middle blocker Preslie Anderson is second in the conference with a .404 attack percentage. 

THE SERIES WITH THE GOLDEN BEARS: Stanford holds a 73-11 lead in the all-time series against Cal. The Cardinal has won 12 in a row against the Golden Bears. Cal's most recent win was a four-set victory on Nov. 25, 2011.

SCOUTING ARIZONA: The Wildcats are 11-1 to start the season with their only setback coming in five sets at New Mexico State. Arizona leads the Pac-12 with 14.98 kills per set and rank second in opponent hitting percentage (.155). The Wildcats are led by senior outside hitter Kendra Dahlke, who paces the conference with 5.40 kills and 5.66 points per set. Junior setter Julia Patterson controls the offense with 11.47 assists per set, while junior libero Makenna Martin is ninth in the league with 3.92 digs per set.

THE SERIES WITH THE WILDCATS: Stanford is 68-7 overall against Arizona. The Cardinal has won three straight versus the Wildcats. Arizona's most recent win came on Oct. 14, 2016, a four-set victory at Maples Pavilion.

LAST WEEK: Stanford won a pair of matches against No. 3 Texas, sweeping the Longhorns at home on Tuesday before earning a four-set victory in Austin on Friday. Junior outside hitter Kathryn Plummer led the squad with 4.43 kills and 2.86 digs per set, while junior opposite Audriana Fitzmorris added 3.00 kills per set on .312 hitting. Junior libero Morgan Hentz averaged 5.43 digs per set while breaking into the top 10 at Stanford in career digs. Plummer and Hentz were repeat selections for Pac-12 Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively.
 


HOME SWEET HOME: Dating back to 2016, Stanford's 22-match home winning streak is the longest in the nation. The Cardinal went a perfect 11-0 in its regular season home matches in 2017, and is 3-0 to start this season. Over the past five-plus seasons, the Cardinal is 74-8 (.902) at home. 

BY THE NUMBERS: The 2017 season marked Stanford's 37th consecutive NCAA postseason appearance. The Cardinal is one of only two programs in the nation to have appeared in every NCAA Tournament since the NCAA Championship began in 1981 (Penn State is the other). Stanford has won more NCAA Tournament matches (119), made more Final Four appearances (21) and been in the national championship match (15) more times than any other program in the nation. Its seven NCAA titles also ties Penn State for the most by a Division I team.

PRESEASON ALL-PAC-12: Stanford led the conference with four Preseason All-Pac-12 selections - Audriana Fitzmorris, Jenna Gray, Morgan Hentz and Kathryn Plummer. Fitzmorris, Hentz and Plummer are repeat honorees, while Gray earns the nod for the first time.

ALL-AMERICANS: The Cardinal returns five AVCA All-Americans to its 2018 roster. Jenna Gray, Morgan Hentz and Kathryn Plummer were all first team picks as sophomores, while Audriana Fitzmorris earned a spot on the second team. Senior Tami Alade landed on the honorable mention list. Stanford's five players on the first and second teams in 2017 were a program-best. The selections brought Stanford's total AVCA All-America award count to 95 honors spread over 40 players. It marked the fifth straight season in which the Cardinal had produced at least four All-Americans.
 


PAC-12'S TOP HONOR: In 2017, Kathryn Plummer became the 15th Cardinal player and first since Alix Klineman in 2010 to be named the Pac-12 Player of the Year after leading the conference in kills (4.66) and points per set (5.39). She was also the first conference player to win Freshman of the Year and Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons since Stanford's Bev Oden in 1989 and 1990.

SETTER OF THE YEAR: Jenna Gray was the second Stanford player to earn Pac-12 Setter of the Year honors since the award began in 2011, joining Madi Bugg who took home the honor three times (2013, 2014, 2015). The Shawnee, Kansas native paced the league and was fourth nationally in 2017 with 12.04 assists per set, and had the Cardinal hitting .319 as a team - the third-best mark in the nation.
 


LIBERO OF THE YEAR: Morgan Hentz was the first Cardinal player to be named the Pac-12 Libero of the Year since the award's inception in 2011. She led the team with 4.08 digs per set in 2017, upping that mark to 4.39 digs per set in NCAA Tournament matches, and had just 15 reception errors on the season.
 


CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS: The Cardinal clinched its 17th Pac-12 title on Nov. 15 with a 3-0 win over USC. It was the program's 20th conference championship overall and first since 2014. It marked the 29th top-2 standing in Pac-10/12 play in the past 32 seasons. Stanford has claimed eight of the past 12 Pac-12 titles.

1,000 KILLS CLUB: At Howard on Aug. 27, junior Kathryn Plummer became the 19th Stanford player to register 1,000 career kills just half way through her collegiate career. Only two Cardinal players have reached the 2,000 career kills milestone - Ogonna Nnamani (2,450) and Alix Klineman (2,008).
 


1,000 DIGS CLUB: JuniorMorgan Hentz became the 18th Stanford player since 1986 to register 1,000 career digs, doing so against No. 18 UCLA on Nov. 16. Gabi Ailes (2007-10) holds the career record at Stanford with 2,147 digs, the fifth-most in Pac-12 history.
 


CARD IN EUROPE: In June, the Cardinal embarked on a 12-day European Tour, including stops in Slovenia, Croatia and Italy. The Cardinal played matches versus the Slovenia National Team, twice, the Slovenia U19 National Team and the Serbian U19 Team while in Slovenia. Stanford also played the Croatian Federation Team and Italy's Menca's U17 National Team. Freshmen Holly Campbell and Mackenzie Fidelak, and outgoing senior Merete Lutz joined the team on the tour. The trip was the Cardinal's first international journey since visiting China in 2011.
 


HEAD COACH KEVIN HAMBLY: Kevin Hambly was named the head coach of the Cardinal on Jan. 30, 2017 after spending eight seasons at the helm at Illinois. The 2011 Volleyball Magazine National Coach of the Year, Hambly led the Illini to six NCAA regional appearances and the 2011 national title match. He coached 12 AVCA All-Americans to 19 honors during his time at Illinois, and has added six more at Stanford.