Sweet 16 Bound

Box Score

STANFORD, Calif. – The top-ranked Stanford women’s volleyball team held off Michigan State with a 25-20, 25-22, 24-26, 25-23 win Saturday, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Maples Pavilion in Stanford, Calif. The Cardinal, which is the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, improve to 31-1 on the year, while the Spartans end the season at 19-14.

As a team, Stanford hit .310 after posting a season-low .212 against CSU Bakersfield the night before. The Cardinal held Michigan State to a .200 clip and out blocked the Spartans 10.0 to 6.0. Both teams finished with 61 digs.

“This time of the year is just awesome," said head coach John Dunning, now in his 14th season with the Cardinal. "I’ve been coaching long enough that I have feelings about this time of year and I think this team does too. What you try to do every match is just do the best you can and win.

“Obviously Michigan State is very good. They’re tested every weekend in their conference like we are. They came ready to play. They’re one of the teams I heard was just getting better and better as they went through the season.”

Junior outside hitter Jordan Burgess led Stanford with 15 kills on a .324 attack percentage to go with 18 digs and three blocks for her team-best 17th double-double of the season. She also reached a career milestone, notching her 1,000th kill. She becomes just the ninth Stanford player to record 1,000 career kills and digs.

"I’ve been lucky enough to play all three years I’ve been here, that’s a big part of it [reaching 1,000 career kills]," said Burgess. "Madi does a good job setting me and we have a really good relationship on and off the court."

Junior middle blocker Inky Ajanaku hit .458 with 13 kills and four blocks, while junior outside hitter Brittany Howard finished with 12 kills and 10 digs for her second double-double of the season. Redshirt freshman middle blocker Merete Lutz was the fourth Stanford player to reach double-digit kills, totaling 10 on a .450 attack percentage and five blocks.

"I always expect our team to make the hard comeback," added Ajanaku. "We’ve done it a lot of times throughout this season and that faith in each other is really important. We almost got that third set, but it was great to see our team respond and come back in that way."

Junior setter Madi Bugg directed the offense with 53 assists while racking up nine digs and three blocks. Senior opposite Morgan Boukather pitched in with eight kills, 10 digs and three blocks, while senior libero Kyle Gilbert collected double-digit digs (12) for the 32nd straight match.

"Everybody wants to win right now, they’re desperate and you have to fight them off," explained Dunning. "It’s that experience of winning in tough situations as much as we have this year that helps us learn how to do that."

Michigan State also had four players with double-digit kills. Sophomores Allyssah Fitterer and Clhloe Reinig both tallied 15 kills for the Spartans, while freshman Alyssa Garvelink and senior Taylor Galloway posted 13 and 11, respectively. Senior libero Kori Moster finished with 13 digs to anchor the defense.

“We battled pretty hard. We could’ve rolled over after game two,” said Michigan State head coach Cathy George. “Obviously the middles are pretty physical and it was a mismatch there in size. Both of [Stanford’s] middles were hitting over .450, but we needed to contain other players. We needed to battle back.

“I was proud of our team and how we answered in games three and four, and found ourselves in it in game four. With a little turn here or there maybe we could’ve pushed that to game five. We all know game fives are, who knows, game fives are a coin toss. “

Stanford advanced to the Ames (Iowa) Regional next week and will face Pac-12 foe Oregon State on Friday, Dec. 12 at Hilton Coliseum. The match will be streamed on ESPN3. No. 8 seed Florida and No. 9 seed Illinois will face off in the other semifinal match.

"What a story Oregon State is," added Dunning. "They didn’t have a fun year last year at all and they have a couple new people in, some other people have just stepped up and they’re so much better. I’m really happy for them. They’re a good team. You have to keep getting better this time of the year."