The Arizona volleyball team faced Stanford University on the road Saturday, Nov. 19, at 1:00 p.m. MST. The Wildcats were swept by the Cardinal, and the set scores were: 17-25, 19-25 and 23-25.
This is now the second time Stanford has swept Arizona this season.
Set 1 (17-25)
Stanford came out delivering three quick kills against the Wildcats, but Arizona would respond and retake the lead at 4-3. Both teams would then go back and forth trading kills and errors. Until the 10-11 mark, then Stanford began to pull away and ultimately win the first set. Their win was mostly because of Elia Rubin from Stanford who was second in her team in kills and had six timely ones for this set.
Set 2 (19-25)
In the second set, Arizona continued their slow starts and Stanford took advantage of this, building an early lead of 10-3 against the Wildcats. Although Arizona was able to fight back and close the gap a bit. It was never enough, because Arizona could not slow down Kendall Kipp or McKenna Vicini who both took over in this second set. Kipp had six kills in this set alone and Vicini had five kills of her own, the two of them completely controlled this set and were the main reason why their team had a 2-0 lead in the match.
Set 3 (23-25)
The slow starts continued for Arizona as they quickly found themselves down 3-6, but then Stanford would give up some errors and the gap would be closed. However, this set was for Caitie Baird who would leave her mark on the final set. She was the third leader in kills for Stanford and was the leading factor as to why Stanford was able to fend off the Wildcats in the final set. She had six kills in this set and they all came at times when Stanford needed to stop Arizona’s momentum and give it back to its own team.
The Wildcats were unable to come up with enough answers for a handful of Stanford players and it contributed heavily to why they were swept in this match.
Arizona has fallen to 15-14 on the season. The Wildcats will look to bounce back against the University of Colorado Boulder at home on Wednesday, Nov. 23, at 1 p.m. MST.
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