Stanford stopped just short of Final Four
Two winning streaks went head-to-head on Saturday night for a chance to reach the Final Four.
Stanford’s didn’t get extended.
The Cardinal’s 21-match winning streak came to an end at the regional final on Saturday, a 3-2 defeat to No. 2 seed San Diego, which stretched its streak to 28 matches. The Toreros will advance to the Final Four for the first time in program history and face topseeded Texas.
“I’m really proud of the way we competed and of the progress we made this year,” said head coach Kevin Hambly. “Incredibly disappointed to not be playing anymore.”
Stanford was on a mission to return to the Final Four for the first time since 2019, when it won the national title. It led 2-1 but lost the next two. San Diego won the last six points.
The Toreros led early in each set except the fifth, and the Cardinal rallied back to make each of them competitive. San Diego made some self-inflicted errors throughout, but it didn’t burn them in the end.
Instead, the Toreros’ defensive effort stopped the usually sharp Cardinal, holding them to a .253 hitting percentage, Stanford’s ninth-lowest in a match this season.
“We made a lot of defensive changes throughout the match,” said San Diego head coach Jennifer Petrie. “We had our defenders constantly switching up. They beat us a lot in the first two games with offspeed (hits) and tips, so we made some different shifts.”
San Diego committed six attacking errors in the first set and four more before the second set was halfway through. That masked some of the Cardinal’s early issues that caught up later in the second set.
Stanford struggled to win extended rallies and was caught off-guard with a few misreads while the Toreros roared ahead 19-16. The Cardinal rallied with consecutive kills from Kendall Kipp while facing set point, but momentum didn’t last and the Toreros took the second set.
The Cardinal led 24-15 in the third set before a San Diego rally brought the Toreros within five, but Kipp had found her offense and sealed it on the next set point. San Diego made nine more attacking errors in the set.
An unsuccessful challenge in the fourth didn’t derail a late rally from the Cardinal, even after San Diego picked up a controversial point in the aftermath. Kipp continued her torrid pace, but San Diego won the last two points to force the fifth set.
The shorter fifth set was as even as the Cardinal had played all season. They finished the season 3-2 in matches that went five.
Sophomore middle blocker Sami Francis returned last match against Houston for her first action since September, and admitted afterward to being rusty. Against a tall, physical San Diego squad, Francis’ size was invaluable. She finished with nine blocks.
Mistakes in the fifth set hurt the Cardinal, though, with a service error and a lost point letting the ball drop due to miscommunication.
Stanford’s season ends at 27-5, with its first loss since Sept. 25.
The Cardinal lose three seniors, none of them starters, bringing back the core of the roster including freshman Elia Rubin and sophomore Kami Miner, and both Kipp and Caitie Baird who picked up extra fifth seasons.
“If we peaked and were worse next year, I’d be pretty worried about that,” Hambly said. “I feel like we have a lot of growth ahead of us, we have everyone back and we’re adding some great recruits, but we won’t worry about that right now. Right now we’re mourning our season.”
The Final Four begins on Thursday in Omaha, where Louisville will also face Pittsburgh, who upset the defending national champions Wisconsin earlier in the day.