By Jordan Wallach on September 15, 2014

Opening up its first week as the No. 1 team in the nation since November 2012, Stanford’s women’s volleyball team continued its challenging pre-conference schedule in the Stanford Invitational this past weekend, perhaps now with an even bigger target on its back.

But the Cardinal (7-0) continued their stretch of dominance to open the season, winning all three matches they played in just over a 24-hour stretch in the tourney, and getting off to the team’s best start since the 2010 season when they went 14 matches before losing to UCLA. All of this happened despite season-opening matches that paired Stanford up with some of the best competition in the country, something even that head coach John Dunning admitted took a toll, saying, “We were pretty tired after giving up a lot for the first two weeks.”

No. 20 Duke, the Cardinal’s fourth ranked opponent of their first five matches, was first on the docket on Friday night, and Stanford avoided a letdown, taking the match in four sets, 25-11, 27-25, 23-25, 25-15.

Penn (6-3) was up next on Saturday morning, and the Cardinal took care of the Quakers quickly in three sets in their first of two games that day, 25-17, 25-23, 25-22. Saturday night, Stanford welcomed Bay Area neighbor Santa Clara (8-2) to Maples, in a match that was never close, as the Cardinal earned the sweep, 25-14, 25-15, 25-11.

Stanford’s middle blockers continued their dominant play in the tournament, with big impacts coming from both a familiar face, and one that has emerged as a key player in the rotation early in the season. Junior Inky Ajanaku tallied 36 kills on a .517 hitting percentage over the three matches, also tallying 15 blocks. She led the team on Friday night against Duke with a career-high 21 kills, hitting .576 over the four sets.

Redshirt freshman Merete Lutz has been an early-season surprise, but not if you ask Dunning. The 6-foot-8 Houston native hit .651 over the three matches this weekend, tallying 29 kills on just 43 attempts, also collecting eight blocks.

“It’s been a long time coming, obviously, waiting all last year,” Lutz said. “But it’s so much fun, the team’s really excited for this year and it’s great to be out there finally, especially with everyone clicking.”

Dunning said this was all part of the plan, as the team is now seeing the impact the redshirt freshman can have on a match.

“Merete was ready to play last year,” he said. “She has some obvious advantages, and she takes advantage of them. Over the last year, she’s gotten a lot stronger, which was the idea behind red-shirting her.”

Consistently having a big presence at the middle of its attack, as well as its defense, has paid big dividends for Stanford early in the season, and is likely to be a key to the team’s success throughout this season, so long as they’re set up well.

“Our team is realizing that if we work really hard on ball control and if we work really hard on serving, then we have an opportunity to get to two hitters that can do some damage. And when that happens, then the other hitters have a much better shot,” Dunning said. “[Our other players] will have openings because the other teams have to worry about our middles.”

Senior opposite hitter Morgan Boukather has also stepped into a big role in the teams first few matches, filling in the vacated spot on the outside of Rachel Williams ‘14. She’s playing career volleyball early in the season, and seems to be setting career highs in each match. Boukather is averaging 2.65 kills per set on a .309 hitting percentage early on, also tallying 0.91 blocks per set on defense.

Over the weekend, she played against Duke and Santa Clara, with some rest on Saturday morning against Penn, combining for 18 kills on 25 attempts and 10 blocks over the two matches. Boukather said that the consistent playing time this season has allowed her to find her groove early on.

“The more experience you get, the more confident you get,” she said. “And you see the same situations over and over again, so you know how to deal with them. [The early success] is just experience and I’m just going for it, it’s my last year.”

“She’s experienced, but very motivated because she played behind Rachel last year,” Dunning said. “Morgan was ready for the opportunity that was going to be available for her or someone else, and she has jumped up and grabbed it.

“It’s really been a neat thing for our team because we can split the other team’s blockers apart.”

Up next for the Cardinal is the USD Invitational in San Diego, where the team will take on the hosts, as wells as Eastern Washington and Cal State Northridge. It’s a final tune-up before the team opens up conference play the following weekend with the Big Spike at Maples Pavilion.

Boukather said this Stanford team is built for a long run, and while the No. 1 ranking might put a target on its back, the players are more than ready for what’s ahead.

“It’s just a different team, we have a different personality. We have a lot of the same people, but there’s just a different aura,” she said. “We’re still really motivated, but this year, I think we’re more experienced and we’re able to come back. We learned from our mistakes last year and we just have to be able to go for it.”

Contact Jordan Wallach at jwallach ‘at’ stanford.edu.