Beaver Volleyball Comes up Short against No. 4 Stanford

Oregon State heads to the desert next to face the Arizona schools

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(CORVALLIS, Ore.) - Senior Jill Sawatzky (St. Andrews, Manitoba) racked up her 18th double-digit kills match of the season, but the Oregon State volleyball team (8-17, 1-10 Pac-10) came up short in three against the No. 4 Stanford Cardinal (18-2, 9-2 Pac-10) on Sunday afternoon. Set scores were 17-25, 21-25, 20-25.

“It is a matter of consistency, and we had a game plan to really stop Hayley Spelman on their team, which we did,” head coach Taras Liskevych said. “The last time we played them at Stanford, Spelman hit 65 percent – she hit 10 percent today. The other outside/opposite from Alix Klineman, Rachel Williams, we really wanted to block her angle, but we didn’t do that well. Klineman is going to get her kills – she’s the best player in the nation. We just need to make sure we stop other people on their team. And we just didn’t have an all-around play from our middles today.”

Sawatzky was only a pair of digs away from her ninth double-double of the season, adding a service aces and a block. Sophomore Camille Saxton (Balzac, Alberta) backed up Sawatzky with nine kills of her own, adding one of the team’s three aces.

After getting off to a slow start in the first set, Oregon State battled back to within a pair at the midway point, but the Cardinal held the Beavers to only sideout points the rest of the way, despite Sawatzky’s four kills.

Heading into the second set, Stanford took the quick lead again, but Oregon State strung points together behind the consistent serving of sophomore Martie Massey (Beaverton, Ore.) to reach 15 first, holding a slim one-point lead. But the Cardinal rebounded to reach 20 first, and despite a late Oregon State surge, the Stanford held on to take the 2-0 lead.

Oregon State threatened again coming out of the long break hanging with the Cardinal through the whole third set but unable to tie it after the 1-1 mark. Stanford went to four different hitters to get the final five points to win the match.

Freshman Becky Defoe (Bend, Ore.) dug a team-high 17 balls to lead the backcourt, while Saxton, freshman Mona Kressl (Langenzenn, Germany) and sophomore Ashley Eneliko (Seattle, Wash.) all anchored the front court with three blocks each.

Stanford’s Alix Klineman led all hitters with 16 kills, while libero Gabi Ailes had 17 digs.

Oregon State heads to the desert next to face the Arizona schools. The Beavers will travel to Arizona State first on Friday at 7:00 p.m.

Oregon State Notes – Sophomore Megan McBride is now ninth all-time for career assists with 961, passing Lisa Madrid … Senior Jill Sawatzky is now fourth all-time for career points with 1,591.5, passing Staci Hintze … Freshman Becky Defoe tied her career-best for digs with 17.

Source: Oregon State Athletic Communications