Recap: No. 4 Stanford Women’s Volleyball powers past UCLA on Sunday
On Sunday, No. 4 Stanford women’s volleyball defeated UCLA 3-1: 25-18, 21-25, 25-8, 25-16. Middle blocker Erika Sayer led the way for the Cardinal with 13 blocks, hitting .611 while Jordyn Harvey had 10 kills and 10 blocks, hitting .429. UCLA senior outside hitter Cheridyn Leverette was the top performer for the Bruins with 10 kills. Stanford improves to 9-2 overall while UCLA falls to 6-4.
BOX SCORE: UCLA at Stanford-Sunday, September 21st
“I thought it was a good win against what I think is a really good team,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “You know, they got PK back and she’s a nice player and it makes them pretty physical. It felt more like a Big Ten volleyball match where it was like big bangers hitting the ball hard and good physical blocks. So it was a good preparation for us as we get ready for the tournament to play a team like that. Which is down the line of course, we got a long ways to go. I think all in all, it’s a nice way to end. You know, three wins in a row, lost one set at home, but to finish 3-0 this weekend and 5-0 over the last two at home is a good start as we get into the ACC.”
In the first set, UCLA jumped out to an early 9-5 lead after a kill by Leverette. Stanford would respond by winning six of the next seven points to lead 11-10 as Harvey had a kill during that run while the other five points came via UCLA error. After a kill by Phekran Kong, UCLA tied it up 11-11. Stanford then went on a 4-0 run to lead 15-11 as Elia Rubin and Lizzy Andrew each had a kill while Harvey had a service ace. From there, Stanford would not give up the lead the rest of the set, closing it out on a 3-0 run to win 25-18 as Harvey had a kill in that final run.
Stanford got off to a 3-0 lead in the second set thanks to back-to-back kills from Harvey followed by a service ace by libero Spencer Etzler. After a kill by Harvey, Stanford led 11-8. UCLA then went on a 3-0 run to tie it up 11-11 as Brooklyn Briscoe had a kill during the run. After Leverette and Harvey traded kills, it was tied up 19-19. UCLA then went on a 3-0 run to lead 22-19 as Kong added another kill to her total (9). From there, UCLA would take the set 25-21 as a kill by Eliana Urzua ended the set. It was now tied 1-1.
“Yeah, we were getting them off the net and we were doing what we normally do, we just couldn’t defend them,” Hambly said of the second set. “They were scoring on the high ball and number nine Leverette and I thought 17, however you say here name, Urzua, like both those guys did a really nice job managing highballs and we weren’t converting them into points and normally we do and so puts the pressure on us that way.”
The third set was all Stanford as they jumped out to a 7-0 lead as Etzler had another service ace while Rubin and Sayer had kills as well. UCLA was never in this set, trailing 18-8 after a kill by Kong. Stanford then finished the set on another 7-0 run to win 25-8 as Harvey had a pair of service aces while Sayer, Rubin, and Logan Parks also had kills. Stanford bounced back fiercely as they held UCLA to -0.111 hitting. Up 2-1, Stanford now just needed to finish strong.
“Yeah, like hey you guys, we can’t mess around,” Hambly said of what he told his team after the second set. “We lost focus there a little bit. Let’s keep the pressure on them. It’s good service pressure. Like I thought Spencer started us off right with some good service pressure and then we started converting those points and knocked some people off the court with acing them and getting them in trouble passing. So I thought it was just mostly about pressure and from the service line and attacking smart.”
“We stopped competing,” Sayer admitted. “I think we took our foot off the gas a little bit and you can just never do that against teams like this. And so, or any team in general. So I think we’re working really hard to just stay competitive throughout the entire match.”
Stanford jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the fourth set as Sayer and Harvey had kills to get things going. After a kill by Andrew, Stanford led 9-5 and then 11-6 after a service ace by Anna Pringle. After a 3-0 run that featured back-to-back kills by Sayer and a kill by Ipar Kurt, Stanford led 16-10. Stanford, never giving up the lead the entire set, would go on to win 25-16 after a kill by Kurt off an assist from Parks (38 assists). 3-1 Stanford won the match, capping off a three-match homestand in which they extended their home winning streak to 19.
“Yeah, we love playing at home,” Sayer said. “I mean, it’s Maples. It’s amazing. The crowd brings a lot of energy, our student section. We have lot of the other sports and a lot of the other just students that go here come up and support us. A lot of the kids from my freshman dorm were like hey, we’re super excited to go to the games. So, I think sports are a really big culture here and I think that’s part of the reason why Maples is so fun to play in.”
For Stanford, this was a nice win and a great weekend overall. After dispatching of Hawaii and Texas State in straight sets, defeating UCLA in four sets has to feel good. UCLA is a quality Big Ten opponent and an old Pac-12 foe. This was a good measuring stick for Stanford to wrap up non-conference play.
“Yeah, we were talking about that a lot that this is a big test for us going into ACC play,” Sayer said. “That this is a good team that we needed to come in completely ready and I think we did a really good job of that. I think we had a little hiccup in set two, but I think that’s good for us to learn how to get out of that.”
A major reason for Stanford’s success all week was the performance of freshman Erika Sayer. She was strong all weekend long and saved her best performance for UCLA. As a result, Sayer was named ACC Freshman of the Week, averaging 2.9 kills per set for the weekend while hitting .449.
“Honestly, our scout,” Sayer said of the key to her success. “I think we followed it really precisely and I think Logan was dishing me great balls. I mean, all the credit to our passers. The fact that I could even be set is because of them and Logan. So I think all the credit to them.”
“She did, yeah she’s had a strong start,” Hambly said of Sayer. “She’s got a good arm. She’s tough to stop when her and Logan are clicking. I mixed her, I changed her and Lizzy, like back and forth in a couple of the sets and I thought she did a really good job.”
On top of Sayer, it really was an all-around great team performance by the Cardinal this weekend. Multiple players got going thanks to the stellar setting of freshman Logan Parks and the defense with freshman Spencer Etzler manning the back row was strong as well. Everyone did their part.
“Yeah, I’d say all the freshmen are doing a good job,” Hambly said. “Even the ones you guys don’t see because they’re not playing, but they’re all working hard. They’re all trying to get integrated into the system. They make some freshmen mistakes sometimes, they get a little bit hesitant sometimes because they’re still learning so much. All in all man, I think we’re pretty pleased with them in the way that they’ve been producing and then also their learning curve was pretty steep.”
“I think working really hard in the practice room and just listening to Kevin as much as I can get from him,” Sayer said of the key to making an impact as a freshman. “I’m taking all of the information that I can get. And then me and Logan’s connection, I mean, we’ve been working on that a lot and she’s working just as hard as I. It’s been awesome. I mean, UA Next we got to play together a little bit and [inaudible], so we had a little bit of a prior connection with each other. But just getting the reps with each other has been really influential, so I think just working in the gym and our communication is [improving] a lot. So it’s fun.”
Up next for Stanford is ACC play. They’ll hit the road to face Virginia and Virginia Tech. Up first will be Virginia on Saturday at 10:00 AM PT on ACCNX. They’ll then face Virginia Tech on Sunday at 9:00 AM PT on ACCNX.
“Yeah, I mean, we can make our push to see if we can get the ACC title and try to make a run at being a top four seed,” Hambly said. “You know, I think we did what we needed to so far and we’ll see if can string together a bunch of wins in the ACC. Virginia, Virginia Tech, we’ve seen them once in my career. I don’t know them very well. Know them from playing them last year and never been in their arenas, never done any of that stuff, so it’ll be exciting to see new places. Just looking forward to kinda, getting in the ACC and getting back at our conference and getting to learn a lot more about it because I still have a lot to learn about the conference.”
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