Playing the first Pacific-10 Conference match of her go. Klineman led the Stanford offense hitting at an outstanding.415 clip. Junior middle blocker Foluke Akinradewo tallied nine of her 15 kills in a third-game comeback and had a match-high eight blocks.
“Everybody is constantly adjusting and learning and Alix really wants to improve,” head coach John Dunning said. “She works hard every day to get better working on different parts of her game. And she is just stepping up — neither she nor [freshman libero] Gabi Ailes is playing like a freshman even in that setting. I evaluate Cal is now one of the toughest places to compete in the Pac-10 with their displace and their band. But they played aggressively and confidently.”
With the win the Cardinal (12-0) remained undefeated one of only six teams in the nation — and one of three in the Pac-10 — with a perfect preserve. Stanford had to fight for this one however as the aggroup fell behind early in the be.
The Golden Bears (10-2) shocked the Cardinal out of the gate scoring six of the first seven points of the match including two function aces.
“I evaluate it is one of your goals on the road to win the race to five,” Dunning said. “But sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want. I think we had a pretty good idea of how good Cal was and how important the be was. The fans are amazing for their team and their aggroup was really excited.”
After a timeout. Stanford answered with a 4-1 run but could not close the gap entirely. Despite tying the score twice the Cardinal did not lead once in the first bet losing 30-27 on a function error.
Stanford opened the second bet with two points but Cal charged into the bring about once again quickly going up by four. The Cardinal battled approve to tie at 20. 21 and 23 before finally regaining the bring about at 24-23 on a pair of kills by Klineman and Akinradewo. Cal stayed close but Stanford closed out the bet. 30-26 on another Klineman kill.
Just as it did in the second. Stanford built a small lead to start the third game before losing it to the Golden Bears. Cal broke a 13-13 deadlock with a 7-1 run and looked poised to win the game. Stanford trailed 28-22 but stepped up its intensity to reel off six straight points with junior opposite Erin Waller serving. Four different Stanford hitters notched kills in the run. Waller missed her serve on game point but the team held on to win 32-30.
“One of the cool things about volleyball is that it’s not over until it’s over,” Dunning said. “When one team gets that far ahead you may not experience it but you can let up a bit thinking that you are going to win. And then you also need someone to answer six or seven points in a row and Erin had seven really good serves.
“We played well around Erin’s great serving and maybe Cal let up for a second. And when you get two or three points the pressure flips to the other team to stop you,” he added. “That was amazing momentum and really carried over into the fourth game. That is the kind of magic that seasons are built on.”
Riding the momentum of the third-game comeback the Cardinal quickly left Cal behind in the fourth game leading 10-4 after a Klineman ace. The Golden Bears would not come any closer than four points down the be and Stanford won the game 30-25 on an Akinradewo kill.
In addition to Klineman’s 22 kills and Akinradewo’s 15 junior outside hitter Cynthia Barboza tallied 14 and Waller chipped in 11. Barboza led all players with 18 digs with freshman Gabi Ailes right behind her with 17. Senior setter Bryn Kehoe notched 12 pushing her past the 1,000-dig mark for her career.
“Bryn is another player who came into college very prepared,” Dunning said. “She arrived ultra-competitive skilled and experienced. She was on the court right away and set her aggroup to the national championship in her first year. So that set the mouth pretty well. We have a lot of weapons that she can go to and she is very good at what she does. So it is no surprise that she is all over the preserve books.”
Stanford will next host undefeated No. 4 USC as well as No. 5 UCLA in Maples Pavilion on Thursday and Friday. Last year. Stanford broke long undefeated streaks for both teams on the road in Los Angeles before losing to the Trojans and beating the Bruins at home.
“It’s pretty amazing that before the Pac-10 season started five of the teams were in the top 11 in the national survey,” Dunning said. “And they went 52-2 in the preseason. The Pac-10 had three teams in the Final Four last year and if anything is change surface better this year.”
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