Recap: No. 5 Stanford Women’s Volleyball takes care of business against Florida State
On Thursday, No. 5 Stanford women’s volleyball defeated Florida State 3-1 (25-14, 25-13, 22-25, 25-13). Stanford outside hitter Ipar Kurt led the way for the Cardinal with 18 kills and five digs while hitting .389. Outside hitters Elia Rubin (12 kills) and Jordyn Harvey (11 kills) had double digits as well. As for Florida State, outside hitter Kyleene Filimaua was the top performer for the Seminoles with 11 kills and 11 digs. Stanford improves to 15-3 overall and 6-1 in the ACC while Florida State falls to 8-8 overall and 2-5 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Florida State at Stanford-Thursday, October 17th
“I think three of the sets we won, we executed incredibly well,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “I mean, we hit .500, .400, .300, you know, like we hit good numbers, we held their kills down, we put a lot of service pressure on them, we gave a lot of trouble. And then the one set we gave them a bunch of swings. They didn’t hit a great number still, but we made a lot of errors and gave them a chance to get in the set and they ended up winning it. Gave them, especially early. We had to fight back, so I thought all in all, it was a good win. I thought we executed as well as we have at times for periods of time, but we didn’t sustain it through all, like out of the four sets we did for three sets.”
Stanford got off to a strong start, leading 8-2 early on in the first set after going on a 5-0 run, four of which points came off errors from Florida State. A kill from Kurt was also in there. After a kill by Logan Parks, Stanford led 18-8 as they continued to cruise. Stanford would finish the set strong as a kill by Harvey capped off a 25-14 opening set victory. Harvey and Kurt each had four kills for the Cardinal. Stanford was hitting .303 while Florida State was hitting -.108.
“She’s an amazing person and a great talent,” Kurt said of Parks. “Even though she’s a freshman, she’s doing great stuff on the court and she’s helping all of our outside pins or like middles, all of the attackers. I’d say like 50% of the job is by Logan done.”
The second set was very similar as Stanford went on a 4-0 run after it was tied 2-2 to lead 6-2. After a service error made it 6-3, Stanford then went on a 6-0 run to lead 12-3 as Kurt had back-to-back kills during the run. After a kill by Delaney Ewing, Florida State was down 13-20. Stanford then finished the set on a 5-0 run as Erika Sayer had back-to-back kills during the run, Koko Kirsch had a service ace, and Kurt had the set-clinching kill. Kurt was up to eight kills while hitting .389. Rubin had six kills while hitting .417. The Cardinal continued to cruise as they led 2-0.
In the third set, Florida State got off to a hot start, opening with a 5-0 run as Victoria David had a pair of kills during the run. Stanford would win back-to-back points to make it 5-2 as Andrew had a kill while Harvey had a service ace. Florida State then went on a 4-0 run to lead 9-2 as David and Payton Whalen had kills during the run. After a 5-0 run, Florida State led 15-5. Stanford then went on a 5-0 run to make it 15-10 as Harvey and Kurt had kills during the run while Parks had a service ace.
Stanford would actually fight back to tie it up 21-21 after back-to-back kills from Kurt. To Florida State’s credit, they didn’t let Stanford’s run rattle them as they immediately responded with a 3-0 run to make it 24-21. From there, they’d take the set 25-22 as a kill by Filimaua clinched the set. The Seminoles outhit the Cardinal .136 to .098 in the 3rd set. It was now a 2-1 match.
“Kevin was like focus on our side,” Kurt said of what Hambly’s message was after the third set. “We were kind of losing the focus a little bit and he was bringing the attention back to our game and our game plan and whatever we’re capable of and he wanted us to focus on executing back again.”
In the fourth set, Stanford responded strongly by opening with a 6-0 run as Rubin and Harvey had kills during the run while libero Spencer Etzler had a service ace. Stanford was on cruise control pretty much the entire way as they led 18-10 after an attack error by Florida State. After a 5-0 run, Stanford led 23-11 as Kurt had a kill while Rubin had a pair of service aces during the run. Stanford would go on to take the set 25-13 as a kill by Kurt set up match point after which a kill by Sayer clinched the match. 3-1 Stanford got it done.
“She did great,” Hambly said of Kurt. “She hit high, she hit hard, she did a really good job. I thought, for the most part, all of our pins did a nice job. J [Harvey] hit .360, you know, and all that. So, like, I think offensively we were pretty good. Logan did a good job. Again, with distribution and getting everyone involved. We made a few too many errors on some of those swings.”
“I think my teammates I’d say, because they helped me a lot,” Kurt said of the key to her success. “There was great passing, there was great setting, and I was just like, the one that finished all the points that I got. So I was looking at, I had the teamwork behind me.”
Aside from the third set, Stanford was dominant in this one. They really took care of business in the first, second, and fourth sets, not allowing Florida State to get going. And then immediately after the third set ended, they opened up with that 6-0 run, sending a firm message.
What worked well for Stanford was the way they shared the ball, Kurt, Rubin, and Harvey all got rolling in this one while Lizzy Andrew and Erika Sayer had seven kills each at middle blocker. Just an all-around great team performance.
“I thought we dispersed the ball, got them good spaces, they made good decisions for the most part,” Hambly said. “I think there’s some things we could clean up as far as like, who we attack and all that, but I think all in all, we did a good job offensively.”
“I think we were trying to like, execute in a high level, like very consistently,” Kurt added. “And we were like more focused on our side of the net, which was kinda helping us to like, get in a higher level and basically focus on our side of the net, kind of helped us, what I believe tonight.”
Up next for Stanford is a home match against No. 14 Miami on Sunday at 1:00 PM PT on ACCNX. Miami just got reverse swept at Cal, so it’ll be interesting to see how they respond after getting upset in Berkeley.
“They’re very very good,” Hambly said of Miami. “They have one of the best players in the country, number 12 something Flormida [Flormarie], she’s great. They just came off a win last weekend against Pitt, who’s an excellent team. You know, they ended up losing to SMU, but I think we’re gonna have our hands full. They’re a very very good team. They have great arms, well coached, good on defense, I think it’s a really important big match for us.”
“So, we’re just gonna be playing our game and Miami’s a great team,” Kurt added. “I’m excited to see what’s gonna happen.”
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