Recap: No. 5 Stanford Women’s Volleyball wins five set thriller vs. No. 3 Pitt
On Friday, No. 5 Stanford women’s volleyball defeated No. 3 Pittsburgh at home in a five-set thriller: 26-24, 25-22, 18-25, 17-25, 16-14. Stanford redshirt sophomore outside hitter Julia Blyashov led the way for the Cardinal with 20 kills while hitting .349. Stanford senior outside hitter Elia Rubin (16 kills & 8 digs), junior opposite Jordyn Harvey (15 kills & 8 digs), and sophomore middle blocker Lizzy Andrew (10 kills) also finished in double figures. Pittsburgh junior right-side Olivia Babcock was the top performer for the Panthers with 28 kills and 10 digs while junior outside hitter Blaire Bayless had 15 kills. Stanford improves to 23-3 overall and 14-1 in the ACC while Pittsburgh falls to 21-4 overall and 13-2 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Pittsburgh at Stanford-Friday, November 14th
“Yeah, I think a really important, big win,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “You know, I think that’s a very very good Pitt team and they were playing at a really high level and they were, I thought they were making plays. You know, in sets, like one and five especially. Like they were, they were making plays and we had to like match their skill level and their experience and I thought we did and it was a really, really good match for us as far as moving forward that proving that we could execute with the team. It has as much experience as they have.”
“I mean, super important,” Blyashov added. “Our goal is to win the ACC championship. So this game was huge for us. But yeah, now we have to just look forward to, you know, SMU. But, we’re so, so happy and so proud of my team for, you know, beating Pitt. They’re an awesome team and this has been huge for us.”
Pittsburgh got off to a hot start, leading 6-1 early on in the first set as Babcock already had a pair of kills. After a kill by Babcock, Pittsburgh led 10-6. Stanford then went on a 3-0 run to make it 10-9 as Blyashov had back-to-back kills after which Logan Parks had a service ace. Pittsburgh would soon go on a 3-0 run to make it 14-10 as Bayless got back-to-back kills followed by a kill from Babcock. After a kill by Marina Pezelj made it 20-14.
Stanford would inch closer a bit though still found themselves down 24-20 after a kill by Bre Kelley. Stanford then went on a 6-0 run to take the set 26-24 as Rubin and Blyashov each had a kill during the run while Rubin had a service ace. Stanford took the set after a bad set against Pittsburgh. 1-0 Stanford led after fending off six set points.
Stanford built on that momentum from the opening set to lead 7-2 in the second set as Harvey had a pair of service aces while Rubin added four more kills to her total. Stanford would then lead 9-3 before Pittsburgh went on a 4-0 run to make it 9-7. Pezelj had back-to-back kills during that run for the Panthers. Stanford would soon respond with a 4-0 run of their own to make it 14-8 as Blyashov had a pair of kills during the run while Parks tacked on another service ace.
Stanford would later lead 21-14, looking like they might cruise to a second set victory. But then, Pittsburgh went on a 4-0 run to make it 21-18 as Brooke Mosher, Olivia Babcock, Abbey Emch, and Blaire Bayless each had a kill during the run. A kill by Blyashov ended the run as Stanford now led 22-18. From there, Stanford would hang on to win the set 25-22 as a kill by Rubin off an assist from Spencer Etzler clinched it. 2-0 Stanford was in front.
Pittsburgh came out aggressive in the third set, leading 6-3 after a kill by Babcock. After a service ace by Emch, they led 11-6 as Stanford called for time. After a service ace by Pezelj, it was an 18-12 lead for Pittsburgh as the Panthers were close to getting on the board. Pittsburgh would never really get challenged as a kill by Mosher clinched the set 25-18. Stanford now led 2-1.
The fourth set was very similar to the third set. Pittsburgh jumped out to a 5-1 lead as Babcock added another kill to her total while Stanford had three errors. After an attack error by Stanford, Pittsburgh led 15-10. Stanford then won two straight points to make it 15-12 as Andrew picked up another kill. Stanford would trail 19-15 after a kill by Blyashov. From there, Pittsburgh went on a 5-0 run to lead 24-15. Stanford would stave off set point twice as Erika Sayer got a kill after which Anna Pringle got a service ace. An attack error by Stanford ended the set as Pittsburgh won 25-17, tying up the match 2-2.
In the 5th set, Bayless got things going for Pittsburgh with back-to-back kills to lead 2-0. Stanford would lead 5-4 after a kill by Blyashov only for an error to make it 5-5 on the next point. After a kill by Parks it was tied 7-7 only for the Panthers to win back-to-back points to make it 9-7 as Bayless and Kelley got kills. Stanford would fight back as they tied it up 11-11 after a kill by Rubin off an assist from Eztler. Pittsburgh then won three straight points to lead 14-11 as Stanford had two errors while Babcock added another kill to her total.
“The challenge is that she’s a very good player,” Hambly said of Babcock. “If they’re not a good player and they set it to her a lot of times, that helps us a lot, but Babcock’s an incredible player and made some swings that were just elite. And you know, she scored and we thought, like, we should just hit them where we weren’t at times and played at an incredibly high level. I thought she was great. I thought Babcock was great. And we had to figure out ways to stop the other people and then stop her when it mattered and that’s what we did.”
“Yeah, she’s insane,” Rubin said of Babcock. “We knew going into the match that she was gonna, she’s a 30 plus kill type of player. So I mean, I don’t know if she had that tonight, pretty close to it: 28. We knew that she was gonna have those moments and it was just kind of about making everyone else not a problem and seeing if we could stop her in the big moments and I think we did, honestly, a really really good job of that. I think they have some great hitters, but we know that Olivia’s gonna dominate games, so we were really really trying to stay focused on just stopping her when we could but also know that her big kills were gonna happen and that’s just who she is as a fighter.”
Facing multiple match points, the Cardinal dug deep and found a way to stay alive as Rubin had to serve it out. A kill by Rubin off an assist from Parks made it 14-12. An error by Pittsburgh made it 14-13 after which Pittsburgh called for time. Another error by Pitt made it 14-14. From there, Blyashov would get back-to-back kills off assists from Parks to make it 16-14 as the Cardinal survived, taking the match in five hard fought sets.
“Yeah, I mean first off, Elia went back and served great,” Hambly said of that 5-0 run to win the match. “Kept them off the net and then we made a bunch of plays and I thought Julia had opportunities and she took big swings. You know, we blocked Babcock and then we got swings and we took big swings and we went for it and they were very aggressive and I loved the way that we attacked them as opposed to, like play passive. We went at them, which is great…I think most importantly, we’ve been trying to get her [Blyashov] to go for it and she absolutely went for it, when it mattered the most.”
“Yeah, funny story. We’ve been working on that exact scenario all week in practice, randomly picking a rotation out of a hat and we were not able to get it time and time again,” Rubin said of that 5-0 run to win the match. “22-24, the other team, I was 24 and it was always me back there serving and we really struggled this week to get it in practice. But, we’ve been in that scenario and we knew that we could get it eventually. And so that was, I mean, I was trying not to think about that too much, but I was just, how can I put in a good serve and trust my teammates to make a play right now? And we did that time and time again, so it was awesome.”
“I mean, it was incredible,” Blyashov said of getting the match-clinching kill. “I feel like the entire team was just like running in and everyone was so excited and just like so happy and yeah, I don’t know, I’m just so proud of our team for capitalizing and I don’t know, it’s so exciting!”
For Stanford, this is a massive win. They now are in first place in the ACC and in the driver’s seat to get a top four seed in the NCAA tournament. They could have easily given up after being down 14-11 in the fifth set, but instead they found the resolve to come out on top. This was truly a match where everybody had to step up and do their part.
“Yeah, it’s huge,” Rubin said. “I mean, it’s a bummer because I think we could have done it in three sets and that would have been even more amazing. But I think the grit that we showed is even more valuable in a five setter. So having that under our belts and just being able to believe that we can do it and the grit that we showed was amazing. So maybe a little bit of a confidence booster, but more just like knowing that we can hang with the top. I mean, Pitt’s no doubt one of the best teams in the country. So yeah, it’s good. It’s a good confidence boost, but it was more so like the way that we were able to execute was really, we were really proud of that.”
“Logan was dishing up some good sets and I think our defense was great,” Blyashov added. “And yeah, I was just, I don’t know, I had a lot of trust in my teammates that you know, swing hard and they can cover for me…I think it just goes back to how strong our team culture is. Like, we love each other so much and we play for each other and we never stop. Like, we don’t stop until the game is over and so we genuinely were just fighting for every single point. We were trying to stay like focused for every single point ahead of us. And so yeah, like we showed that we’re able to come back in the fifth set and in the first set. And so yeah, as long as we’re just playing our game, we’re doing an amazing job.”
Up next for Stanford is a home match on Sunday, November 16th against SMU. That will begin at 2:00 PM PT on ESPN2.
“Yeah, they’re very good,” Hambly said of the Mustangs. “They serve incredibly aggressive. They’re very, they have a great right side as well. Like an All-American right-side player. So, we’ll have to kind of regroup and make sure that like, get some rest tomorrow and make sure we’re ready for that match tomorrow.”
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