Recap: No. 5 Stanford Women’s Volleyball wins pink match against No. 14 Miami
On Sunday, No. 5 Stanford women’s volleyball defeated No. 14 Miami 3-1 (25-23, 25-27, 26-24, 25-16). Stanford outside hitter Elia Rubin led the way for the Cardinal with 17 kills and nine digs while outside hitter Julia Blyashov had 15 kills. Miami outside hitter Flormarie Heredia Colon led the way for the Hurricanes with 20 kills. Stanford improves to 16-3 overall and 7-1 in the ACC while Miami falls to 15-4 overall and 5-3 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Miami at Stanford-Sunday, October 19th
“I mean, I think it was a really good win, honestly,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly said after the match. “I think they’re a very dangerous team. But I mean, you can see that like 12 is one of the best players. Colon is like one of the best players in the country and she did a great job and I thought we did a really good job on her to hold her under .112. You know, she had 60 swings. To hold her to 20 kills is actually pretty good because as much as she gets.
“So, and I thought we, for the most part, with the exception of a couple runs, we handled her jump serves, which are something that you don’t see a lot in women’s volleyball that we worked on and got ready for, but they did a really nice job of attacking us. So I think, all in all, it was a really good win and to come back after losing that second set, when we had a chance to win it, and they went back and did a nice job serving and got us off the net and put some pressure on us. To respond and still win that and back to them, in the third set, that was huge. It was huge. I mean to do that in the third set, be down, they have swings for the set and to figure out a way to win that and to figure out a way to win that, it’s a big deal for our team.”
Stanford got off to a strong start in the first set as they led 4-1 following a kill by Rubin and a service ace by Jordyn Harvey. After a kill by Miriam Mushkudiani, Miami was down 6-5 only for Stanford to go on a 4-0 run to lead 10-5 as Blyashov had back-to-back kills during the run. After a kill by Blyashov, Stanford led 17-12. Miami then went on a 3-0 run to make it 17-15. Stanford then had a 3-0 run to make it 20-15 as Blyashov had a couple more kills.
Miami would respond with a 5-0 run to make it 20-20 as Amina Ndiaye had three kills during the run. Things would continue to be back and forth as it was tied 23-23. Stanford then won back-to-back points to take the set 25-23 thanks to an attack error from Miami followed by a kill from Blyashov. Blyashov was up to four kills while Rubin had three kills and a service ace. 1-0 lead for Stanford.
The second set was tight from the jump. After a kill by Lizzy Andrew, Stanford led 6-4 only for Logan Wiley to respond with a kill for Miami, making it 6-5. Stanford would lead 11-8 after a Miami service error only for Miami to respond with a 7-0 run to lead 15-11 as Ariana Rodriguez had a pair of service aces. After a kill by Heredia Colon, Miami led 17-14. Then, Stanford went on a 4-0 run to lead 18-17 as Erika Sayer and Blyashov had kills during the run.
A bit later on, Stanford led 23-20 as a kill by Rubin capped off a 3-0 run. Stanford would get a set point opportunity after a kill by Andrew made it 25-24. Unfortunately for the Cardinal, Miami went on a 3-0 run to take the set 27-25 as Heredia Colon and Mushkudiani had kills to finish out the set. Heredia Colon was up to 14 kills. It was tied up 1-1.
“Yeah, I mean in some ways, it’s easier because you know who you gotta go get,” Hambly said of facing a team with one player that is so dominant. “The problem is, there’s a reason they’re getting that many balls because they’re very good, you know? And when it mattered, in the second set, she made plays. And when it mattered in the third set, she made plays. I thought we made plays against her in the fourth and that was the difference is we stopped her. So, I mean they go a little bit how she goes. I think, and they got a little bit how they go from the service line and we did what we needed to do to win.”
In the third set, it was tied 6-6, 8-8, 10-10, and 12-12. Stanford would finally break away a bit to lead 16-12 after going on a 5-0 run as Andrew had a kill during the run and Koko Kirsch had a service ace. Miami would fight back as it was tied up 19-19 after a kill by Dalia Wilson. Following a kill by Mushkudiani, Miami led 24-23 as they were currently on a 3-0 run. Stanford would dig deep and finish the set on a 3-0 run to take the set 26-24 as Blyashov had a pair of kills. That gave Stanford a 2-1 lead as Blyashov was up to 12 kills.
“Yeah, I mean it’s awesome to be able to have so many options,” Rubin said when asked of Blyashov’s performance. “And you know, we can play anyone and we have an amazing outcome. So like Ipar did amazing on Thursday and Julia did an amazing job tonight. So people always talk about the outside hitter duos, but we have the best outside hitter trio, I would say. By far. So just being able to have the production from her, it helps so much because you know, in the front row, we always have amazing hitters, no matter what the rotation is. It’s huge.”
In the fourth set, things were tight early as it was tied 7-7 after Harvey and Mushkudiani exchanged kills. Stanford then went on a 3-0 run to lead 10-7 as Harvey had a pair of kills during the run while Rubin had one. After a service error by Harvey made it 13-10, Stanford rebounded with a 6-0 run to lead 19-10 as Blyashov had a pair of kills during the run. From there, Stanford would go on to win the set 25-16 as a kill by Rubin off an assist from Logan Parks clinched the match. That was Parks’ 43rd assist of the match. 3-1 Stanford got the job done.
“Yeah, I think Logan did a nice job,” Hambly said of their kill distribution. “Get them in positions where they could score. You know, we were out of system where they have some good serving and knocked us off the net and means we have to set down and so they made some really good plays. I thought Jordyn did a really nice job both blocking and hitting.”
“Just like keeping pressure on their side of the net, getting them out of system,” Rubin said of the key to the fourth set. “You know, they have a great player who most of their balls go to, but it also makes their offense pretty predictable. So if we can get them out of system and then they don’t have as many options, that helped us a lot. So that was kind of our focus. Just keep pressure on them.”
For Stanford, this is a huge win. Miami is a strong team and while having up and down moments is still a legit threat. Especially given how good Heredia Colon is. She’s an absolute force that commands a lot of attention. To come out on top against a team that has a player of her caliber has to feel good.
What made this win matter all the more for Stanford is that on top of it being homecoming weekend, it was also their pink match to raise awareness for breast cancer. The team knew they were playing for something bigger than themselves and that was reflected in how they played.
“Yeah, it was huge,” Rubin said of winning their pink match. “I mean, we talked about it before the match. Obviously Miami is an amazing team and we wanted to come out and you know, make a statement against them, but also just, like taking a step back and realizing that that this breast cancer match is like a bigger, it’s bigger than all the volleyball. So that was kind of our main focus is like honoring the names on our back and obviously we care about beating Miami and that was a big part of it for the ACC and all that. But, the most important thing was just like, making a statement because we wanted to be proud of the jerseys that we were wearing and who we’re representing.
“She [the person Rubin was representing] was an employee at Stanford who lost her life last year. So, her family was here on Friday or on Thursday, so it was nice to be able to honor them and honor her as a person as well.”
As for Miami, they had a rough week. Not only did they lose at Stanford, but they also lost at Cal earlier in the week as well via a reverse sweep (win the first two sets and lose the next three). This was a very disappointing outcome for them, but at this point, all they can do is shake this off and get back to work. They still have a chance to make a lot of noise in the NCAA tournament.
“Yeah, no I think that made us nervous because they’re a little bit up and down sometimes,” Hambly said of Miami coming in off the Cal loss. “And they also beat Pitt the week before, you know, and barely lost to SMU. Like, when they’re good, their good is really good. So our goal was to get out the worst version of them by attacking, playing good defense, and put a lot of pressure on them.”
“Yeah, we know coming into this weekend that Miami is a very emotional team,” Rubin added. “And when they’re on, they look really good. So we wanted to try to focus and stay as steady as possible throughout the whole match. I think we did a pretty good job of doing that aside from the second set, where we let up a little bit, but we knew coming into it that we needed to stay solid and like, as steady as possible throughout the match. Let them have their highs and lows. But I think we did a really good job of competing the whole time. That was kind of our goal. So, we’re happy about that.”
Up next for Stanford is a road match at Clemson on Friday, October 24th. That will begin at 3:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
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