Match Stats
- #3 Stanford Cardinal def. Cal Golden Bears 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-17)
- Stanford moves to 26-3 (19-1 Pac-12); Cal falls to 13-18 (4-16 Pac-12)
- Berkeley, California
- Attendance: 1,926
- Box Score
The traditionally-heated Bay Area Cal vs. Stanford rivalry has been anything but in women’s volleyball, especially lately. The Pac-12 Champions (and defending NCAA Champions) Stanford swept Cal, winning their 14th-straight matchup in the rivalry dating back to the 2011 season (where Cal swept Stanford). This brings the all-time series record to 71 wins for Stanford and just 11 for Cal – Stanford has more wins against Cal than any other team they’ve faced in program history.
The Cardinal hit .373 in the match with 46 kills and just 8 errors. Stanford also had 10 team blocks (all as assists) and 5 aces in the match.
All-American Kathryn Plummer led the way for the Cardinal with 16 kills on .371 hitting.
Cal, meanwhile, had just 2 blocks and 0 aces in the match, though they did out-dig Stanford 44-37.
Stanford setter Jenna Gray had 40 assists to lift her season average to 12.12. That ranks her 3rd nationally and tops in the Pac-12 this season (almost a full set ahead of UCLA’s Sarah Sponcil in the latter category). As Gray’s assist numbers have risen later in the season, she’s become less involved in hitting. Early in the year, she was regularly taking 6+ swings per game (in fact, she did so in each of the team’s first 8 matches. At 6’1, she’s capable both at hitter and blocker (she had a 7-block outing last week againt UCLA). But later in Pac-12 play, she hit out of set less-and-less, averaging two-and-a-half attacks over the team’s last 9 games – including just 1 on Saturday.
She is hitting .431 on those swings, but the focus seems to have shifted later in the year to feeding Stanford’s plethora of outside talent. The Cardinal have nailed-down their NCAA tournament rotation to just 8 players – they typically were using between 9 and 11 in the regular season.
Cal was playing again without head coach Matt McShane, who has missed the last 2 weeks while on a “leave of absence.” They were lead in the game by senior Ashten Smith-Gooden,, who had a season-high 13 kills in her final collegiate match on senior night. Fellow senior Antzela Dempi had 10 kills and 2 blocks.
Cal returns 4 seniors next season. As for Stanford, they’ll march on to the NCAA tournament – learning their matchups late Sunday in the selection show. The Cardinal were 5th in the last RPI rankings, and wins against RPI #13 Utah and RPI #109 Cal still might not be enough to jump them into a #1 seed in the tournament – in spite of being Pac-12 champions and the defending national champs.
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