The Stanford women\u2019s volleyball team\u2019s NCAA tournament run – and season – came to an end on Friday, Dec. 11, with a loss to the Michigan Wolverines in the regional semifinals. After dispatching Long Island easily in the first round and battling to a second-round five-set victory against St. Mary\u2019s, the Cardinal fell to Michigan, 18-25, 25-23, 22-25, 11-25.<\/p>\n
Stanford was led in its first-round victory by senior Janet Okogbaa\u2019s 13 kills and junior libero Gabi Ailes 11 digs, which gave her Stanford\u2019s career record. After rolling through their first-round match against Long Island, Stanford knew it would face a tough opponent in Saint Mary\u2019s, but the Cardinal was up to the challenge and pulled out an intense five-set victory, 21-25, 25-21, 25-22, 24-26, 15-13. Juniors Alix Klineman and Cassidy Lichtman, who posted 28 kills and 17 digs and 11 kills, 19 assists and 17 digs, respectively, led Stanford, who advanced to the regional semifinal with the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played a very good St. Mary\u2019s team in the round of 32 and had to fight our way into the next round,\u201d Lichtman said. \u201cI really believe it was sheer will to win that got us through that match.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the regional semifinal, the Cardinal faced a tough Michigan team, and couldn\u2019t pull out the victory. The Cardinal fell behind in the first set after a 6-1 Michigan run and was unable to come back. Michigan hit .545 in the opening set to Stanford\u2019s .258 hitting percentage. After dropping the first set 18-25, Stanford found itself down 2-5 to start the second set. Following a kill and a block by Okogbaa, Stanford tied the score at seven-all.<\/p>\n
More kills by freshman Jessica Walker, Klineman and Lichtman put Stanford up 15-12 before a Michigan run tied the set at 23-23. A kill by Lichtman and an ace by Walker gave the Card the second set, 25-23, and tied up the match.<\/p>\n
But the Cardinal couldn\u2019t carry its momentum over to the third set and fell behind 3-8 early. Stanford remained down the entire set, rallying to within one point at 19-20 after two aces by Ailes and a kill by Klineman. It wouldn\u2019t be enough, however, and Michigan would take the set, 22-25. In the fourth set, Stanford was unable to find its offense and lost the set, 11-25, and the match. Klineman led the Cardinal with 18 kills and eight digs, while Okogbaa ended her Stanford career with nine kills and five blocks.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgainst Michigan, our passing broke down a little, we had some last-minute injuries and our offense was not balanced enough,\u201d Lichtman said. \u201cThey were a great team and they deserved the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the team remained positive about the season as a whole and continued its tradition as a powerhouse program. The Cardinal recorded its ninth consecutive 20-win season, won its fourth consecutive Pacific-10 Conference championship (16th overall) and advanced to its 29th straight NCAA tournament. Additionally, four members of the team were named All-Americans, with Lichtman on the first team, Klineman and Okogbaa on the second team and Ailes as an honorable mention.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team undoubtedly improved dramatically from the start of our season,\u201d Okogbaa said. \u201cThere were moments in the beginning when just about everybody was uncertain about how successful we would be. Our hard work and determination, however, proved to us and everyone else that we were a good team and, contrary to poll predictions, capable of attaining another Pac-10 title.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cardinal, picked to finish third in the Pac-10 Coaches Preseason Poll, exceeded expectations this year and ended with an overall record of 23-8.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beginning was a bit frustrating when we were trying to figure out who we were and how to make our system work but we ended up with some great high points,\u201d Lichtman added. \u201cWe handed Washington their first loss of the season when everyone thought they were invincible, we beat both UCLA and USC on the road, and we had one of the greatest comebacks ever against California to clinch the Pac-10 title for the fourth straight year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Stanford women\u2019s volleyball team\u2019s NCAA tournament run – and season – came to an end on Friday, Dec. 11, with a loss to the Michigan Wolverines in the regional semifinals. After dispatching Long Island easily in the first round and battling to a second-round five-set victory against St. Mary\u2019s, the Cardinal fell to Michigan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}