MATCH STATS

No. 3 Stanford def. Arizona 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-7)

Stanford moves to 11-2, 4-0 Pac-12; Arizona falls to 7-5, 1-2 Pac-12

Palo Alto, California

Attendance: 2,565

Box Score

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Fourteen blocks, including eight by sophomore setter Jenna Gray, lifted No. 3 Stanford to a sweep of Arizona and a 4-0 Pac-12 mark.

The Cardinal outblocked the Wildcats 14-1 and outhit them .355 to .042 in the win.

Sophomore outside hitter Kathryn Plummer tallied a team-best 12 kills and hit at a .423 clip for Stanford. Sophomore middle blocker Audriana Fitzmorris followed with nine kills, while redshirt senior opposite Merete Lutz added eight. Freshman outside Meghan McClure and junior middle Tami Alade turned in seven kills apiece. Fitzmorris hit at a team-high .571 clip and added six blocks, while Alade also chipped in six stuffs. Sophomore libero Morgan Hentz pulled up a team-best 17 digs.

Junior outside Kendra Dahlke led the Wildcats with 12 kills. Redshirt junior middle Jade Turner was next on the team with six kills, but hit at a .000 percentage as did junior outside Tyler Spriggs, who managed five putways. Senior libero Kimberly Gutierrez notched a team-best six digs, while Dahlke and sophomore setter Julia Patterson followed with five apiece.

Stanford took a 9-5 lead in Set 1 with help from a 5-1 run, including a kill and a block by McClure and putaways by Lutz and Alade. Arizona tied the score at 9-all and again at 11. The Cardinal led by as many as three on three occasions, last at 17-14, but could not pull away. The Wildcats eventually tied it up at 20 with kills by Dahlke and Turner. That sparked a final 5-1 Stanford run, including two stuffs by Gray and Alade and two Arizona miscues.

An ace by Hentz gave Stanford an 8-5 lead in Set 2. From there the advantage teetered between one and three until back-to-back kills by Plummer put the Cardinal up 14-10. Arizona was within one at 17-16 behind kills by three different players. Stanford scored six of the next eight points with five kills and a block. McClure and Plummer notched two kills apiece as the Cardinal pulled away at 23-18. Two Dahlke putaways got the Wildcats with three at 23-20, but a kill by Plummer and a service error gave Stanford the 25-21 win.

After a tie at 4 in Set, Stanford took over with a 6-0 run as Lutz turned in two kills and a block and Arizona contributed two miscues. The Wildcats scored two of the next three points on Cardinal errors, but were blown out from there as Stanford closed out the set on a 14-1 run. Arizona scored its final point at 16-7 on a Shelton kill. Fitzmorris notched three kills and two blocks in the final 9-0 run.

PRESS RELEASES

Courtesy: Arizona Athletics

Second-ranked Stanford swept Arizona on Friday night at Maples Pavilion, 25-21, 25-21, 25-7, denying the Wildcats their second-straight victory in Palo Alto.

The Wildcats (7-5, 1-2 Pac-12) made things interesting in each of the first two sets, hanging tough with the Cardinal (11-2, 4-0 Pac-12) but unable to close out a victory in either set. In the third, the Wildcats ran out of gas in a 25-7 Stanford victory.

UA struggled to slow Stanford’s high powered offense, which hit .391 on the night. The Cardinal paired its efficient offense with its signature dominating defense, outblocking Arizona 14-1.

Kendra Dahlke led the Wildcats with 12 kills. Jade Turneradded six and Tyler Spriggs five. Candice Denny, who entered in the second set, made the most out of her playing time, putting down four kills on just six kills.

The Wildcats hung tough in the first set, remaining within striking distance through the first 40 points, ultimately tying the set at 20 apiece before Stanford scored five of the final six points to take the set, 25-21. Kendra Dahlke had five kills for the Wildcats. Stanford hit .355 in the frame, while UA was held under .100 hitting due to 10 errors.

In the second, the Wildcats cleaned up their offense, hitting .273, but defensively, it could stop the second-ranked Cardinal. Stanford notched 17 kills on .333 hitting in the second set in a wire-to-wire, 25-21 victory.

It wasn’t meant to be in the third for Arizona, which dropped the set, 25-7.