STANFORD ADVANCES TO CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH WITH FIVE GAME VICTORY OVER USC
12/13/2007
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Top-seeded Stanford was able to overcome errors and a strong performance from USC in winning a thrilling five-game national semifinal over the No. 5 Trojans, 3-2 (23-30, 30-20, 30-25, 20-30, 16-14) Thursday night in front of 13,048 fans at Arco Arena.
The Cardinal (32-2) will face either No. 3 Penn State (32-2) or No. 10 seed California (26-7) in the national championship match at 6 p.m. Saturday.
With the score tied 9-9 in the fifth game, Trojans senior outside hitter Asia Kaczor notched consecutive kills to put USC (29-5) up 11-9 and it appeared the Trojans had the momentum. But coming out of a Stanford timeout, Cardinal junior opposite Erin Waller got a kill followed by a combo block from freshman outside hitter Alix Klineman and junior middle Foluke Akinradewo to tie it back up at 11-11.
From there, the teams traded points until Kaczor put USC in position to win the match with her 29th kill of the night to make the score 14-13 and put herself on the service line. But her serve sailed harmlessly into the net to tie the game at 14-14. A combo block from Franci Girard and Cynthia Barboza gave Stanford match point and Barboza notched it, hitting hard off the side of USC’s block to give the Cardinal the win.
Akinradewo had 26 kills and a match-high nine blocks while hitting .523 to pace the Cardinal. Barboza (17), Klineman (14), Girard (12) and Waller (10) all joined her with double digits in kills. Bryn Kehoe dished out a match-high 70 assists while Klineman had 30 digs to lead Stanford.
Kaczor’s 29 kills led all players while USC sophomore libero Alli Hillgren had a match-high 34 digs.
Neither team cracked the .300 plateau as Stanford hit .265 and USC hit .246 for the match.
With a slim one-point edge at 12-11, USC took control of game one with a five-point run to make the score 17-11 behind a Kaczor kill on a slide play, a pair of Ali Hillgren aces and hitting errors from Klineman and Girard. Kaczor dominated the first game for USC, amassing nine kills against one error for a .444 hitting percentage. As a team the Trojans hit .341 and held the potent Cardinal attack to .295.
Stanford asserted itself in game two behind dazzling performances from Akinradewo and Klineman. Each had seven kills and Akinradewo added a solo stuff block to lead the Cardinal to a dominant 30-20 win. The tandem also combined to score Stanford’s last seven points of game two. The Trojans did not hold a lead in game two but had cut the deficit to as little as three at 18-21 off a Bethany Johansen kill on the back side, but when Diane Copenhagen cut her shot on the outside too wide, Stanford took a 22-18 lead and closed on an 8-2 run. Stanford hit .442 in the second game while holding USC to .270.
USC errors enabled Stanford to jump out to a 14-5 lead in game three. The Trojans were uncharacteristically sloppy in the beginning of the third game, giving Stanford seven of those points off errors. USC clawed back but could not get closer than four points on several occasions and Stanford rode Waller and Akinradewo to the 30-25 victory.
Game four was by far the ugliest and featured sloppy play on both sides of the net. Stanford gave away five points in a row early on, which enabled the Trojans to open up a 7-2 lead. Stanford came back to tie the game at 8-8 when USC failed to get the ball over the net on three touches. The teams traded points until a Diane Copenhagen kill put USC up 13-12 – and for good. In all, 23 of the 50 points in game three were scored off errors.
The 13,048 attendance is the second highest in national semifinal history.
Stanford is in the final for the second straight year, the13th time in program history and is looking for its record seventh national championship – the third in Dunning’s seven-year tenure. The Cardinal last won the national title in 2004 with a sweep over Minnesota in the final.
