by EATTLE – The 19th-ranked Huskies put up a huge fight without some of its big guns today, but 8th-ranked Stanford (16-4, 11-1 Pac-12) rallied from down 2-1 to hold off the Huskies (16-6, 8-4 Pac-12) in front of a season-high 4,897 fans at Alaska Airlines Arena. Senior setter Ella May Powell broke the UW career service aces record during the fourth set with the 157th ace of her career.
The Cardinal came out swinging and took the first set, 25-18, but then the Huskies slowed down Stanford’s attack and easily won set two, 25-19, before pulling out a tight third set, 25-23, to go in front. But Stanford responded with another 25-18 set win to force a fifth. Washington never got its footing in the fifth, as Stanford won nine of the first ten points to run away with a 15-5 finale.
Stanford now has a two game lead in the conference with eight games to go, leading Oregon by two, and the Huskies, USC, and Washington State by three games. The Cardinal or the Huskies have won or shared the past ten Pac-12 titles.
Washington hit .250 overall for the match but Stanford finished at .333. In the three sets won by Stanford, the Cardinal hit over .400, while UW held them to a .189 and .229 efficiency in winning sets two and three. The Dawgs hurt themselves with 15 service errors to go with two aces, while Stanford had six aces and 14 service errors.
Claire Hoffman had 20 kills to lead the Husky offense while Shannon Crenshaw had a big 12 kills, double her previous season high this year, Emoni Bush returned to add 12 kills as well. Marin Grote added nine kills and three blocks on a .348 percentage. Powell had 43 assists and three kills to go with her record-breaking ace. Sophie Summers had five kills on eight swings with four blocks.
