Stanford’s court 2 duo of Courtney Bowen and Sunny Villapando pick up our VolleyMob Beach Pair of the Week honors for their efforts in a pair of Top 15 upsets at the Pac-North Invitational in Seattle.
Bowen, a junior from Brooklyn, New York, and Villapando, the freshman from Manhattan Beach, California, went 4-0 on the weekend en route to Pac-North all-tournament team honors. The pair bested foes from Oregon and No. 4 USC in straight sets on Saturday. The duo hung on for a 26-24, 28-30, 15-10 win in the upset of Cal and followed that with a straight-set win over Washington to seal that victory on Sunday. With the wins, Bowen/Villapando move to 6-0 on the season, including three victories over Top 20 foes.
Bowen went 7-9 with Jennifer DiSanto as a rookie and followed that with a 13-5 on Court 5 in 2017, mostly with Kat Anderson. The Pac-12 all-academic second team honoree boasted the highest winning percentage on the team as a sophomore.
Villapando was team captain of the Mira Costa High School beach volleyball team in 2017, winning a state championship and AVCA High School Beach Honorable Mention All-America honors. She was also a two-time indoor team MVP, earning the accolade her freshman and sophomore seasons.
As a team, Stanford is 16-10 on the year and brings a two-match win streak into a Saturday match at No. 13 California.
Date Opponent (School)
4/14 def. Agost/Cole (Oregon) 21-17, 21-10
4/14 def. Dennis/Dorn (#4 USC) 21-16, 21-12
4/15 def. Dueck/Bark (#13 Cal) 26-24, 28-30, 15-10
4/15 def. Schwan/Julye (Washington) 21-13, 21-17
VolleyMob Beach Pairs of the Week
Feb. 27 – Francesca Goncalves/Sara Putt, Florida State
March 6 – Skylar Caputo/Alexis Filippone, Pepperdine
March 13 – Federica Frasca/Margherita Bianchin, Florida International
March 20 – Morgan Martin/Lea Monkhouse, Hawaii
March 27 – Abril Bustamante / Tina Graudina, USC
April 3 – Zana Muno/Savvy Simo, UCLA
April 10 – Raeann Greisen/Macy Gordon, Cal Poly
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