Preview: No. 4 Stanford Women's Volleyball welcomes No. 6 Louisville to Maples
On Sunday at 2:00 PM PT on ESPN, No. 4 Stanford women’s volleyball will welcome No. 6 Louisville to Maples Pavilion. Stanford comes in at 12-2 overall and 3-0 in the ACC while Louisville comes in at 11-2 overall and 3-0 in the ACC.
Last time out: On Friday, Stanford defeated Notre Dame 3-0 (25-22, 26-24, 25-14). Elia Rubin, Julia Blyashov, and Erika Sayer each had 12 kills for the Cardinal.
RECAP: No. 4 Stanford Women’s Volleyball sweeps Notre Dame
On Louisville: The Cardinals are having a strong season as their record reflects. Their only two losses are to No. 3 Kentucky and No. 2 Texas, both in five sets. They are coming off a 3-0 sweep over Cal and will look to pull out a tough match at Stanford.
The Cardinals are led by sophomore outside hitter Payton Petersen, who is averaging 3.43 kills per set. Junior outside hitter Chloe Chicoine is right behind her, averaging 2.98 kills per set while redshirt senior middle blocker Cara Cresse(2.71 kills) and freshman opposite Kalyssa Blackshear (2.55 kills) are also north of 2.0 kills per set. There’s a lot of depth on this Cardinals team.
As a team, the Cardinals are averaging 13.66 kills, 12.36 assists, and 1.38 service aces per set while hitting .255. Their opponents are averaging 11.28 kills, 10.72 assists, and 0.96 service aces per set while hitting .136.
Keys to the match: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is get a cleaner performance out of Elia Rubin. While she had 12 kills against Notre Dame, she didn’t have the best match, hitting .182. If Stanford wants to win this match, they need her to play cleaner than she did.
Secondly, Stanford needs to continue to get their middles going. When Lizzy Andrew and Erika Sayer are doing their thing, good things happen. They need to have a strong outing in this one.
Third, Stanford needs to win the service battle. Louisville does a great job with their service pressure with their 1.38 service aces per set while Stanford does even better, averaging 1.61 service aces per set. Whichever team does a better job with respect to service pressure will likely win this match.
Prediction: Given Stanford is at home and is the higher ranked team, I’ll pick them to win this match 3-2. I expect this one to be a battle and go the distance. Should be both fun and intense at the same time.
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