Recap: No. 4 Stanford Women’s Volleyball sweeps Hawaii
While Stanford football wasn’t able to get a win over Hawaii earlier this season, No. 4 Stanford women’s volleyball made quick work of the Rainbow Wahine on Friday at Maples Pavilion, defeating them 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-20). Stanford outside hitter Elia Rubin led the way with 16 kills and 13 digs while middle blocker Lizzy Andrew was right behind her with 12 kills on a .647 hitting percentage. Stanford improves to 7-2 overall while Hawaii falls to 4-5.
BOX SCORE: Hawaii at Stanford-Friday, September 19th
“I I thought we were a little sloppy at times,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly admitted after the match. “We were good in the side out phase of the game, in transition and defense, we weren’t great. I thought we created opportunities. We just didn’t necessarily take advantage of them and execute like we needed to. So, I think it was a little frustrating like to not execute at the level we want, the level we did like last weekend. So, we’ll see if we can kind of work our way into that tomorrow. I think we need to against Texas State and UCLA. Otherwise we’ll be in trouble.”
Stanford jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the first set after back-to-back kills by Andrew and a service ace by Koko Kirsch. Hawaii to their credit did not give up. After back-to-back kills by Cha’lei Reid, Hawaii trailed 13-10. They then trailed 15-14 after three straight Stanford errors and then tied it up 17-17 after a kill by Miliana Sylvester.
Stanford then woke up to go on a 3-0 run as Jordyn Harvey and Elia Rubin had kills during that run. A kill by Stella Adeyemi made it 20-18, giving Hawaii a bit of life, but Stanford responded by winning five of their last six points to take the set 25-19 as a kill by Rubin finished the job. Rubin was on fire with eight kills, hitting .500.
In the second set, Stanford once again jumped out to an early lead, going up 8-2 as part of a 5-0 run in which Andrew had two kills. Stanford would lead 18-10 after a 4-0 run that included a service ace from Kirsch. She was continuing to serve well. Stanford was never really challenged in this set, winning it 25-18 as Hawaii made a bit of a late rally to make the set score not look as bad. Rubin was up to 14 kills, hitting .420 while Andrew had 10 kills while hitting .600.
“Lizzy was great,” Hambly said of Andrew. “We got her going. Especially on the slide. And then, I mean Elia was really good there, too. I mean, she hit .342, had a little trouble getting Jordyn and Ipar going. Some of that was just some choices they were making, so it was some setting stuff. We’ll work through it, be a little bit better tomorrow.”
“I think the connection between me and Logan was really good,” Andrew said of her success. “I really trust her. She’s a great setter and I just believe in her and everything she does…Yeah, she is a freshman, so it’s been a process of connecting with her, but she works really hard and she’s really great communicating. So I think like connection is going to get better from here…This season, [I’ve been] working a lot on blocking. Being clean and working a lot on being quick to the pins and then just obviously connection with Logan.”
In the third set, Stanford led 6-2 after three straight errors from Hawaii and then they would lead 10-5 after a kill by Ipar Kurt. Stanford continued to cruise, leading 23-14 after a service ace by Spencer Etzler. Hawaii would go on a 7-0 run to make it 23-20, forcing Stanford to call time out at 23-19. However, Stanford would close out the set 25-20 to get the sweep after back-to-back kills from Rubin and Logan Parks.
“I mean, we were cruising and then we just kind of took our foot off the gas a little bit,” Hambly acknowledged. “And kind of just trying to think that they’re going to give it to us. I think we made a bunch of mistakes that were kind of silly.”
Overall, this was a strong win for Stanford. They didn’t really bend and for the most part controlled the match from start to finish. Hawaii battled hard and played with a lot of fight. That is something they can carry into Big West play.
“I’m really proud that we fought,” Andrew said. “We started off a little shaky, but we were able to handle it. Play Stanford volleyball and kind of get after it and take care of the match. So, I’m proud that we were able to finish that well.”
Up next for Stanford is a home match against Texas State on Saturday, September 20th. That will begin at 4:30 PM PT on ACCNX.
“Yeah, they’re good. They’re a very good team,” Hambly said of the Bobcats. “I think people don’t know Texas State, but they are a very good RPI team, they make the tournament almost every year, they can ball. So, we got our hands cut out. We got our hands full with them. We got to execute at a high level if we’re going to beat them.”
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