STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford women's volleyball advanced to its fourth consecutive Elite Eight, and its 29th in school history, with a 22-25, 25-14, 25-10, 12-25, 15-11 victory over Utah on Friday night inside Maples Pavilion.
Senior Kathryn Plummer led the way for the Cardinal with 29 kills on a .389 hitting percentage. She also had 10 digs and a season-high seven blocks.
Stanford (27-4) hit .303 as a team and posted a season-best 21.0 team blocks, holding Utah (24-10) to a .200 clip. Senior Madeleine Gates registered a career-high 14 blocks in the win.
Senior setter Jenna Gray finished with 52 assists and matched her career-high with eight blocks. She also tallied six digs and three kills. Senior libero Morgan Hentz collected 23 digs and had five assists, while junior defensive specialist Kate Formico added 11 digs and an ace.
Senior opposite Audriana Fitzmorris added 10 kills and four blocks for Stanford, while Gates hit .571 with eight kills on 14 errorless swings. Junior Meghan McClure, who tallied kills on Stanford's final two points, totaled six kills, 11 digs and four blocks. Sophomore middle blocker Holly Campbell chipped in with five kills and five blocks.
Utah had four player register double-digit kills, led by junior outside hitter Dani Drews' 18. Kenzie Koerber added 12 kills on .323 hitting, 16 digs and four blocks. Fifth-year senior Berkeley Oblad had 12 kills and four blocks, while freshman Zoe Weatherington finished with 10.
The Cardinal will host (11) Penn State (27-5) on Saturday at 7 p.m. on ESPNU. Stanford and Penn State are the only two programs to make all 39 NCAA Tournaments and will meet with a spot in the Final Four on the line.
Utah wins first set, 25-22
Utah jumped out to a quick 10-4 lead to force a Stanford timeout, and extended the lead to 12-5, but the Cardinal then charged back to score five straight and force a Utes timeout at 12-10. Plummer had six kills in the first set, four of them coming as Stanford scored six of eight points to close the deficit. The Cardinal forced another Utah timeout after scoring four straight to tie the match at 21-21, but the Utes closed out the set by scoring four of the last five points for the 25-22 victory.
Stanford wins second set, 25-14
The Cardinal bounced back nicely with a dominating second-set victory, 25-14. Stanford jumped out to an 8-5 lead to force a Utah timeout, and then the Cardinal went on to score 17 of the final 26 points for the win.
Stanford wins third set, 25-10
For the second straight set, Stanford dominated on its way to a 25-10 victory to take a 2-1 lead in the match. The Cardinal scored 20 of the final 24 points in the set after falling behind 6-5 to take command in the match.
Utah wins fourth set, 25-12
Utah wasn't going to go down without a fight, winning the fourth set 25-12 to force a decisive fifth set.
Stanford wins fifth set, 15-11
A back-and-forth fifth set turned Stanford's way with five straight points to take a 10-6 lead and grab the momentum. However, Utah got it back to one, at 11-10, scoring four of the next five points to force a Cardinal timeout. The Cardinal closed out the victory in style with three straight points and was led by Plummer's seven kills in the final set.
