No. 7 Stanford women’s volleyball beat the Bruins handily last night in a three-set sweep (25-17, 25-15, 25-16). No. 16 UCLA was hoping to get a win over the Card after it spoiled the Bruins’ opening game at the new Pauley Pavilion last season, but Stanford never gave them a chance.

Neither team led by more than one point to start the first set, with plenty of tie scores and lead changes. However, Stanford went on a 4-0 run to push the lead to 21-16. Sophomore Jordan Burgess led the team in kills with seven at the end of the set.

During the second set, Stanford did a very good job of placing the ball well with its attacks. All of the momentum was with the Cardinal as it hit .447, leading 13-10 at a UCLA timeout. After they weren’t able to make adjustments the first time around, the Bruins called another timeout to make more corrections, especially on defense. Senior middle blocker Carly Wopat responded right out of the break with a kill, putting her at nine kills on 11 attempts.

UCLA never got a point in the rest of the set as the Card scored four points consecutively to take the second set 25-15. UCLA hit only .149 to the Card’s .475 attack percentage. Hitting errors also hurt the Bruins as they committed 13 — almost three times that of Stanford.

UCLA kept the beginning of the final set close until Stanford went on a 4-0 run to lead 11-5. UCLA would start to get close but then Stanford would respond with a powerful play and shut the Bruins down down. Both teams were kept on their toes but Stanford played comfortably with a 24-16 lead at match point. A kill by Rachel Williams ended the match.

The seniors dominated the match as Wopat finished with a .667 hitting percentage and a game high 13 kills to go with 6 blocks and outside hitter Rachel Williams had 11 digs and seven kills.

Contact Ashley Westhem at awesthem ‘at’ stanford.edu