Recap: No. 6 Stanford Women’s Volleyball takes care of business at Long Beach
This weekend, No. 6 Stanford women’s volleyball picked up wins against Long Beach State and Oregon State in the Long Beach State University tournament. On Friday, they defeated Long Beach State 3-1 (18-25, 25-19, 25-16, 25-20) and then on Saturday, they swept Oregon State 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-21). Stanford is now 3-1 on the season.
BOX SCORE: Stanford at Long Beach State-Friday, August 29th
BOX SCORE: Stanford vs. Oregon State-Saturday, August 30th
Aside from dropping the opening set against The Beach, the Cardinal were pretty much on cruise control the entire way. Erika Sayer led the way in the win on Friday with 10 kills and five digs while Ipar Kurt was right behind her with nine kills. As for Saturday, Jordyn Harvey’s nine kills, four digs, and three blocks led the way while Julia Blyashov had eight kills. It was really a dominant weekend for the Cardinal as they out-hit The Beach .244 to .218 and then out-hit the Beavers .390 to .133.
While there are a lot of positives Stanford can take from this weekend, the fact that they had some younger players stepping up is huge. Sayer is a true freshman who is going to be asked to do a lot at the middle blocker position so long as Reese Dunkle is out and then Blyashov is going to be called upon to produce for the first time of her career. Both players are looking strong and playing good volleyball.
On top of that, sophomore setter Taylor Yu (65 assists) and true freshman libero Spencer Etzler (29 digs) are both growing into their respective roles. It can’t just be the Elia Rubin/Jordyn Harvey show out there. Others are going to have to step up and so far they are doing that.
All around, this was a good weekend for Stanford. They won comfortably against two teams that they were supposed to beat and for the most part looked like a top ten team. Mission accomplished.
Up next for Stanford is a road match at No. 5 Texas on Sunday, September 7th. That will begin at 10:00 AM PT on ESPN.
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