Volleyball falls to Stanford Cardinal

The Sun Devil Volleyball team faced another powerhouse team Sunday afternoon as they took on the fourth-ranked Stanford Cardinal in Palo Alto, Calif. at Maples Pavilion. While Margie Giordano led offensively with 11 kills and Sarah Johnson defensively with 15 digs, the effort fell short as they lost in a 25-18, 25-13 and 25-16 sweep to the Cardinal. ASU is now 10-8 overall and 1-4 in conference play as Stanford improves to 15-2 overall and a perfect 6-0 in the Pac-10.

Twelve tie scores and 13 leads changes finally saw the finish of the first set with the Sun Devils hanging in the set tenaciously until the finish. In the end though, 10 costly Sun Devil errors and five blocks by Stanford gave the Cardinal the edge with four blocks alone from Foluke Akinradewo giving Stanford the 25-18 win.

The plot seemed to change in the second set though as Stanford put up a wall against the Sun Devils, slamming seven blocks on ASU while compiling a .286 attack percentage as ASU’s offense fell off-balance with 13 errors. The Cardinals took advantage of the errors and ran with it, as Foluke Akinradewo blasted six kills, hitting .500 with three solo blocks and seven block assists to topple ASU 25-13.

The Stanford assault continued in the third set, with the Cardinal running on all cylinders, hitting .400 as a team. The Sun Devils put up a rally though as they forced four lead changes with Margie Giordano leading the way with four kills and Sofie Schlagintweit with three in ASU’s best set against the Cardinal offensively. The effort in the end wasn’t enough though as Stanford again held the net with two blocks and kept their errors to a bare minimum, taking a 25-16 win in the final set.

The Sun Devils will now return home to host Pac-10 foes USC and UCLA next weekend in Tempe on Friday, October 24 and 25. Both matches will be at 7 p.m. PT at ASU’s Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe.