Match Stats
- 6-seed Stanford def. Boise State 3-0 (25-11, 25-22, 25-18)
- Stanford advances to Sweet 16 where they’ll face Florida State on Friday at 4:30 Eastern Time in Madison
- Maples Pavilion, Stanford, California
- Attendance: 1,250
The Stanford Cardinal swept their way to their record-setting 111th NCAA Tournament victory on Friday. This is the 13th time the Cardinal have advanced to the Sweet 16 in John Dunning’s 16-year run as head coach.
Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Kathryn Plummer pushed the Cardinal to the top with 17 kills and a .342 hitting percentage – the only Stanford player in double digits. That was her career high in a 3-set game.
The Cardinal’s other standout freshman, Audriana Fitzmorris, had 9 kills and 7 blocks in the game to come away as Stanford’s second-leading scorer. Overall, Stanford out-blocked Boise State 11-2. Stanford led the nation in blocks in the regular season at 3.34/set.
Sierra Nobley, as she’s done most of the season, led Boise State with 12 kills and 12 digs – her 18th double-double of the season.
“I thought Stanford was fantastic to start off,” said Boise State head coach Shawn Garus. “We passed pretty well, we were taking some high swings, but Stanford was just played better. We talked in the timeouts to keep doing what we’re doing and the more we see it the more comfortable we’ll get out there. I think it was 10 or 12 points into the second set that we got a little bit of rhythm going, got some good serving going, got them out of system and it seemed like the match was on. We were playing from behind in the second set, but we were playing much better. But Stanford just didn’t give us much room to breathe, they played just great tonight.”
Stanford closed the opening set on a 7-point run with Halland McKenna at the service line. Statistically, her sophomore campaign hasn’t gone as well as her freshman year did last year, but with 10 digs against Boise (her most in 2 months), as well a few successful runs at the service stripe, her rhythm might be returning in December.
Stanford carried their momentum from the end of set 1 into the 2nd, where they found themselves at exactly the same 18-11 margin. This time, however, instead of folding, Boise State fought back to close the score to 22-24, but a Fitzmorris kill ended the challenge.
The Broncos’ momentum, like Stanford’s in the set before, carried them early in 3. Two kills by Nobley led them to a 5-3 lead early, but then the Cardinal rattled off 8-straight points to deflate Boise’s energy.
Leave a Reply