Stanford Recap -- With Talking Head

As we’ve noted before (and will again), #9 Stanford’s team this year definitely lives up to their mascot — the Stanford Tree.  They’ve got 6-8 RS Jr. MB Merete Lutz, 6-6 Fr. MB Audriana Fitzmorris, 6-6 Fr. Opp/Setter Kathryn Plummer, 6-3 RS Sr. MB Inky Ajanaku, and 6-3 So. OH Hayley Hodson (plus two other 6-4 players).  That’s seven players who are as tall, or taller, than Penn State’s tallest player — 6-3  Haleigh Washington.


But Stanford’s height advantage wasn’t the reason they took down Penn State in straight sets on Sunday (24-26, 18-25-22-25).  In fact, then-#13 Penn State (2-3) out blocked Stanford 10-8 in the match.


What sealed the loss for the Nittany Lions was the serve-receive game: 9 service errors for Penn State to only 2 for Stanford, and zero aces for the Nittany Lions to 8 aces for the Cardinal.  In a match in which the first set was decided by two points, and the third set was decided by three points, those statistics were killer.