By John Reid

Daily News Staff Writer

It took Stanford until the third set to start playing like the No. 2 team in the country. And when all pistons were firing for the Cardinal, there wasn’t much visiting Texas A&M could do about it. Stanford’s 25-19, 25-19, 25-15 sweep of the Aggies at Maples Pavilion on Friday evening was a pretty good effort, considering Stanford (1-0) was missing its top two middle blockers due to injury.

“I gave it a B-plus,” said Stanford’s All-American outside hitter, Jordan Burgess. “There are things we have to work on. We had a nice feel on the court, at least in the beginning. It was good to have that.”

Burgess had 13 kills and three block assists, hitting a wicked .429. Mountain View High grad Brittany Howard rose with authority, swatting 12 kills, registering four digs, three block assists, while hitting a lofty .478 for the match. Setter Madi Bugg did everything, chalking up 28 assists, seven digs, four kills and a solo block, assisting on three others.

Stanford coach John Dunning, who won his 402nd match in his lengthy stint at Stanford, pointed to the three aforementioned seniors as the main reason for the sweep.

“Our three seniors were amazing,” Dunning said. “We had some experienced players out there, just being solid and making it easy for everyone around them. And our young players did a great job. Texas A&M was really a good team. I’m surprised we won in three.”

The Aggies (0-1) had an athletic hitter in Kiara McGee, who got off the ground, delivering seven kills. Angela Lowak had a team-high 13 kills for A&M, but the Cardinal’s height advantage was too much for the Aggies to handle.

Stanford was without All-American middle blocker Inky Ajanaku, declared out for the year with a knee injury. And when 6-foot-8 Merete Lutz injured a finger the second day of practice, it opened it up for the likes of freshman Tami Alade and redshirt freshman Ivana Vanjak to show their skills. Show them they did.

The 6-4 Vanjak, a native of Germany who speaks five languages, spoke volumes at the net with eight blocks. Alade had a pair of blocks and a kill in Game 3, showing good poise.

“Ivana has played middle for two weeks,” Dunning said. “We moved her to middle because we had issues. She played like she wants to be on the floor.”

Dunning was pleased with true freshman Halland McKenna, who started at libero and had nine digs. Dunning also praised sophomore defensive specialist Sarah Benjamin, who had five digs.

“They both had a lot of poise,” Dunning said. “They didn’t make many errors and dug some great balls.”

The announced attendance of 1,617 witnessed a good match as the Aggies came in resting five teams outside the AVCA top 25 rankings. Texas A&M scored the first point in each set, leading as much as 10-6 in Game 2. A block by Burgess and a combined block by Howard and Vanjak closed the gap to 10-8.

Stanford went on a 9-5 run to go up 17-15 as a kill from Burgess landed just inside the back line. A Vanjak block, a point won thanks to a tough dig by freshman Hayley Hodson and a two-hand dink for a point by Burgess, prompted Aggies coach Laurie Corbelli to call a timeout. A kill and an ace by Bugg ended the game.

A Howard kill got Stanford a 10-5 lead in Game 3 as the reeling Aggies called timeout. Howard’s booming kill made it 17-9 Cardinal. Vanjak and Burgess had successive winners for 19-10 as Corbelli called her last timeout. Howard, who ended Game 1 with a kill, ended the match with her 12th kill of the night.

“We served tough the whole night,” Dunning said. “That got to them. They had a hard time running their offense because we served tough. We’re the kind of team that wears the other team down.”

It was an impressive debut for Hodson, who had 10 kills and 11 digs, exhibiting a huge upside from the right side position. The match was the first played using the fancy, new scoreboard, which hangs high over the Maples Pavilion hardwood.

“The JumboTron is sick,” said Burgess, paying the scoreboard the ultimate compliment. “It was a blast. We always love playing at Maples.”

Stanford will be out on the Maples floor on Sunday against Minnesota at 1 p.m.

Email John Reid at jreid@dailynewsgroup.com; follow him at twitter.com/dailynewsjohn.