Recap: No. 5 Stanford Women’s Volleyball sweeps Utah State
On Friday, No. 5 Stanford women’s volleyball defeated Utah State 3-0 (25-13, 25-19, 25-16) in their home opener. Jordyn Harvey led the way for the Cardinal with 12 kills and 10 blocks while Elia Rubin had 10 kills. Mara Stiglic was the top performer for the Aggies with 10 kills. Stanford improves to 5-2 overall while Utah State falls to 1-5.
BOX SCORE: Utah State at Stanford-Friday, September 12th
“Yeah, I mean, it was nice to get a win at home,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “And you know, I think we blocked 18 balls, which is kind of crazy number. You know, like six a set is pretty good. I think we played a little sloppy at times, a little unfocused. You know, the kiss of death when you play the first set and you beat them 13, you know, like you kind of relaxed. I thought we did a little bit in the second set. And we just talked about executing at a higher level. I think, the scores we’d be happy about against most teams, but I think we all know internally that we could play better.”
“Obviously, we talked about this wasn’t necessarily one we felt the greatest about,” Harvey added. “I don’t think our team really executed or just played at the highest level that we know we can. At the end of the day, we got the win, which is, which we should have, but I think after this game, we kind of realized, like we need to come out against Davis a lot harder, a lot more with a lot more intention, a lot more, you know, focus I think is a big thing we talked about. But overall, we took care of it, did what we needed to. We got this game handled.”
Stanford got off to a strong start in the first set, leading 10-6 after a service ace by Ipar Kurt. That capped off a 3-0 run. Stanford would steadily build lead, going up 17-11 after a kill by Lizzy Andrew. After an error made it 17-12, Stanford ripped off a 5-0 run, winning eight of the last nine points to win the set 25-13.
The second set was tied up 6-6 as Tierney Barlow had a couple of kills for the Aggies for their 5th and 6thpoint of the set. Stanford then won back-to-back points to go up 8-6 as Kurt had a kill while Utah State committed an error. Utah State then went on a 4-0 run to lead 10-8 before Harvey had back-to-back kills to make it 10-10. After a kill by Stiglic, it was tied 12-12 as Utah State continued to put the pressure on Stanford.
Stanford then won back-to-back points off a kill by Harvey and an error by Utah State to make it 14-12. From there, Stanford wouldn’t give up their lead. Utah State got within one point at 17-16 and 18-17, but then Stanford went on a 3-0 run to lead 21-17. Stanford would go on to win the set 25-19 as Spencer Etzler had a key ace to help put Utah State away.
“I’d say them elevating their play, us not elevating ours and kind of going in the other direction,” Hambly said of the second set. “And get some mistakes, not being as committed to defense. We kind of worked through it and started to defend at the end, but I thought we were a little sloppy there for a long period of time. Like 19-17, up to 19-17, I didn’t feel like we were playing and then from 19 on we did a nice job.”
In the third set, Stanford jumped out to a 5-1 lead as Kurt had a service ace and Rubin had a kill during that stretch. Utah State would rally a bit to get within two points at 11-9, but then Stanford won four straight points, three of which came off service aces from Kurt to make it 15-9. After a kill by Stiglic made it 15-10, Stanford then went on a 5-0 run to lead 20-10. 25-16 would be the third set score as Logan Parks got the match-clinching kill.
For Stanford, the end result was what they wanted, but they felt they could have played better. They’re hoping to use this as a teaching moment to stay sharp and not let their guard down against teams they are supposed to beat. The season-high 18 blocks was definitely the highlight for the Cardinal, 10 of which came from Harvey.
“I think games like this show, like yes, we’re a good team,” Harvey said. “And so like, we’re able to get away and still use our talent to help, beat teams like these. But it helps also reveal things that we’re still weak at a little bit. I think talent wise, we have it all. When it comes to like our talent, we’re very strong in that, but just still trying to be progressive every single game. I think we kind of fell back a little bit on our progression, but using this is a way to kind of come harder tomorrow and recognize that we still got things we need to work on and continue to do that.”
Stanford used this as a chance to give setter Taylor Yu a bit of a rest as she only played briefly in the final set. Logan Parks played almost the entire match at setter, giving her a chance to get some valuable rotations as a freshman.
“Just give her a chance to play, we were up,” Hambly said of giving those rotations to Parks. “The set was over and we had been running a 6-2 for times with Logan hitting, so we thought we would jump back into it and see how it goes.”
“Honestly, she’s so amazing,” Harvey said of Parks. “I love watching her grow. She’s such a hard working setter, she’s such a hard working player, you know, coming in as a freshman and taking such a big role that she’s expected to, along with the other freshmen, you know, honestly, our relationship as you know, setter and hitter has been continue to gel and I respect her so much and I love watching her grow every single day and continue to be a part of that has been awesome.”
After playing their first six matches away from The Farm, it felt good for Stanford to be back home. They’re hoping they can use this upcoming how stretch to build some momentum before ACC play begins.
“So nice to be back,” Hambly said of returning home. “I mean like, for a lot of reasons. We get a nice little stretch here where we get to work and be home. The road trips are great. I thought we could learn a lot, we got better. It was nice to go away and do all of that, but it’ll be nice to be home and play in front of our crowd for the next like five, four matches after this.”
“It feels like it’s been years,” Harvey said of returning home. “We’ve been on the road. And so, you know, being back with our home crowd, in our own gym, with you know, new locker room and everything, it’s been honestly so nice. We’re really happy to be back and to be back for a while is going to be really nice and be back on our home floor. So continuing to have that as comfortability, that we haven’t had the last few weeks, just definitely an advantage for us.”
Touching more on the new locker rooms, it sounds like those are a huge upgrade from before. That is something that should help both volleyball and basketball out both in terms of building team camaraderie, but also with recruiting.
“Really, really big,” Harvey said of the new locker room. “I think initially, I was pretty overwhelmed. Like, woah, it’s a lot of space. But it’s really cool, really beautiful, great space for our team to like kind of, you know, be comfortable and have like a good spot for all of us just to get together after four games and really get in the gym and work harder.”
Up next for Stanford is a home match against UC Davis on Sunday, September 14th. That will begin at 3:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“Feisty, tough, not super big,” Hambly said of the Aggies. “But they play really really good volleyball and they’re very aggressive.”
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