WSU, Washington Up NextWSU, Washington Up Next
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Women's Volleyball

WSU, Washington Up Next


No. 2 Stanford (24-1, 16-0 Pac-12) at No. 18 Washington State (19-7, 10-6 Pac-12)
Friday • 7 p.m.
Live Stream • Pac-12.com
Live Statistics • GoStanford.com


No. 2 Stanford (24-1, 16-0 Pac-12) at No. 20 Washington  (17-9, 9-7 Pac-12)
Sunday • 1 p.m. 
Television • Pac-12 Networks
Live Statistics • GoStanford.com

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SCOUTING WASHINGTON STATE: Washington State enters the week in a tie for third place in the Pac-12 with Oregon. The Cougars split its road trip to Los Angeles last week, defeating UCLA before falling to USC. Washington State is hitting .238 as a team and ranks second in the Pac-12 with 2.60 blocks per set. Junior setter Ashley Brown controls the offense with 10.56 assists per set, ranking sixth in the league. Senior outside hitter Taylor Mims, who has missed time due to injury, leads the team and is sixth in the Pac-12 with 4.35 points per set and seventh with 3.76 kills per set. Senior McKenna Woodford adds 3.49 kills per set.

THE SERIES WITH THE COUGARS: Stanford is 61-4 all-time against Washington State. The Cardinal has won four in a row, including a sweep over the Cougars on Oct. 12. Junior Kathryn Plummer led all players with 16 kills on .387 hitting, while junior Morgan Hentz racked up 20 digs. The Cougars most recent win came on Sept. 30, 2016, a five-set victory in Pullman.

SCOUTING WASHINGTON: Having won four straight, Washington is in fifth place in the Pac-12 standings. The Huskies picked up two big wins over USC and UCLA last week in Los Angeles. Washington is hitting .229 on the season and leads the Pac-12 with 1.65 aces per set. Junior Kara Bajema paces the team and is fifth in the conference with 3.85 kills per set and seventh with 4.32 points per set. Freshman setter Ella May Powell is fifth in the league in assists per set (10.79), while junior libero Shayne McPherson is eighth in digs per set (3.97). 

THE SERIES WITH THE HUSKIES: Stanford holds a 55-15 lead in the all-time series with Washington. The Cardinal swept the Huskies at Maples Pavilion on Oct. 13 as Kathryn Plummer had a match-high 17 kills on .483 hitting, while Audriana Fitzmorris hit .556 with 10 kills and four blocks. Washington was the last Pac-12 team to defeat Stanford, picking up a four-set win over the Cardinal in Seattle on Nov. 8, 2017. 
 


NATIONAL POLL: Stanford remained No. 2 in the AVCA Coaches Poll again this week, receiving 16 first-place votes. The Cardinal began the season at No. 1 for the first time since 2002. BYU stayed at No. 1, while Stanford is followed by Minnesota, Illinois and Texas in the top 5. Seven Pac-12 squads are ranked.

LAST WEEK:  Stanford pushed its win streak to 22 with victories over No. 17 Oregon (3-1) and Oregon State (3-0). As a team, Stanford averaged 4.64 blocks per set in the two matches. Freshman Holly Campbell led the way with 2.29 blocks per set, while senior Courtney Bowen added 2.14 blocks per set. Campbell was selected the Pac-12's Freshman of the Week for the second time this season.
 


HOME SWEET HOME: Dating back to 2016, Stanford's 31-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 12-0 in 2018. Under head coach Kevin Hambly, Stanford has only dropped 10 sets at Maples Pavilion. Over the past six seasons, the Cardinal is 83-8 (.912) at home. 

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS: The Cardinal won its 18th Pac-12 title outright on Nov. 9 with a 3-0 win over Oregon State. It was the program's 21st conference championship overall and second straight. It marked the 30th top-2 standing in Pac-10/12 play in the past 33 seasons. Stanford has claimed nine of the past 13 Pac-12 titles.
 


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.

SENIOR CLASS FINALIST: Middle blocker Tami Alade is one of 10 finalists for the Senior CLASS Award. The award recognizes student-athletes who have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. Fan voting is open now! Click here to vote for Tami.
 


TOP 25 WINS: Stanford is the only Division I women's volleyball program to have 13 wins against teams currently ranked in the AVCA top 25 this season. Stanford is 13-1 against ranked opponents this season.

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.