UW Volleyball Loses to Stanford, 3-1

Washington, an already young and inexperienced team entered last night’s matchup against the third ranked team in the country without May Pertovsky and Lauren Bays, two of their star players. Expecting a 3-0 knockout, Washington managed to bring Stanford to four sets, but the circumstances weren’t enough to bring them over the hump.

The first set started simply enough, but it wasn’t long before Washington found themselves down heavily to Stanford. This was dropped by a score of 25-15 and the combined efforts of Audra Wilmes who had the first kill at 10-10 did not provide the needed energy as Stanford’s hitting percentage climbed over .600.

Jeff Scott Shaw @ UW Dawg Pound

A second set was in the works with the Huskies down 5-4. After a 3-0 run, Husky volleyball sat on top of the Stanford Cardinal 7-5, however, things were fading once again. An ace from Freshman Grace Zilbert created a blast of momentum that seemed to run out as Stanford regained firm control with a score of 11-8. Returning to being tied at 11, the gas was pressed from there and the Huskies won this one with a surprising score of 25-21 after the 6-1 run earlier that seemed to end their chances.

Unfortunately, that was the last time the Huskies could fully enjoy themselves. In the third set, the squad fell early by a margin of seven and managed to bring it back to a deficit of two with a score of 9-11. Stanford pushed further, realizing that they could drop two consecutive sets and after a delivery from Molly Wilson that ended in a terrifying kill, Stanford was only up by two again — this time 17-15. This set ended with a losing score of 25-19 after Husky hitting again hit a subpar .200 to Stanford’s .600.

Jeff Scott Shaw @ UW Dawg Pound

Stanford closed out the fourth set 25-21 with the Huskies in another deficit right out the gate. With a failure to remain in the game - especially with the multitude of kills from Barton and Endsley, the Huskies look ahead to Cal for what could be only their second conference thus far on the season.

Dawg Pound Player of the Game: Madi Endsley, Junior, 13 kills, .346 attack, 15 points