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Freshman Inky Ajanaku recorded 11 kills and had a hitting percentage of .600 as the second-ranked Stanford women's volleyball team downed visiting Western Kentucky, 25-15, 25-23, 25-15, in the second round of the NCAA tournament Saturday night.

"On different nights we have different combinations of three to four hitters that are on," Stanford coach John Dunning said. "Inky obviously did a really good job, blocked a lot of balls and had a lot of kills."

The No. 2 overall seeded Cardinal (29-3) advance to the Round of 16, which will be held at California's Haas Pavilion on Friday. Stanford meets 15th-seeded Iowa State.

"They finished second in the Big 12 and are a really well coached and tough team," said Dunning. "We know they are going to come at us and they are battle-tested. We are going to have to come out and fight with them."

Michigan (24-11) and Michigan State (23-9) meet in the other match. Michigan upset 10th-seeded Louisville in four sets and the Spartans knocked seventh-seeded UCLA in four sets.

The winner of the Berkeley Regional, with the final slated for Saturday at 8:30 p.m. PT, advances to the Final Four, to be held in Louisville.

In the second set against Western Kentucky, Stanford called a timeout when the Hilltoppers took a 22-21 lead.

Brittany Howard and Jordan Burgess each recorded a kill out of the timeout and Howard added a service ace to put the Cardinal on the brink. The Hilltoppers staved off one match point before Burgess ended it with a kill.

The Cardinal advanced to the Sweet Sixteen after missing out last year, dropping a second-round match to Michigan. Stanford has not been to a Final Four since losing to Penn State in the national title match in 2008.

No. 13 Washington came back to beat Hawaii in five sets, No. 5 Oregon swept Dayton and USC swept St. Mary's in matches involving other Pac-12 teams.

Women's swimming
Andi Murez set an Ohio State Invitational record in the 200 free and the Stanford women's swimming team capped off a tremendous second day at the national showdown with a win in the 800 free relay Saturday to take the overall lead at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.

Stanford leads the nine-team field with 559 points, overcoming Florida's day-one lead to take the top spot. The Gators are now second with 534 points and the host Buckeyes (412) are third.

"I'm really pleased with the team's effort today," Stanford head coach Greg Meehan said. "Day two in a championship meet format presents more racing opportunities than any other day. To have the performance we did in the 800 free relay at the end of a long day was great. Now we have to move on and be ready to go tomorrow morning."

The Cardinal wraps up the invite Sunday with live results available at GoStanford.com.

Second-place honors in the 200 medley relay went to Stanford's Maya DiRado, Sarah Haase, Haley Sims and Maddy Schaefer in 1:38.91. Florida set a meet record in 1:38.37.

Notre Dame's Emma Reaney set a meet record during the prelims of the 400 individual medley in 4:08.63 but took fourth in the finals. Elizabeth Beisel of Florida bested Reaney's mark in the finals with a 4:00.61 as DiRado was second in 4:06.48.

Sims (54.60) was ninth in the 100 fly and Murez set a meet record in the prelims of the 200 free while going 1:44.83. Murez responded in the finals with a 1:45.16 to finish first.

Haase continued her strong outing with a second-place 1:00.40 in the 100 breast, one spot ahead of Katie Olsen (1:00.44). KC Moss was fifth in 1:01.97.

Maddy Schaefer (53.03) picked up a silver finish in the 100 back as Annemarie Thayer (53.94) was fifth overall.

In the 1-meter diving event, Kelly Markle (284.65) claimed second and Stephanie Phipps (281.25) took fourth.

Stanford ended the evening session by winning the 800 free relay by more than a second over Florida. DiRado, Schaefer, Julia Anderson and Murez touched in 7:03.18 as Florida stopped the clock in 7:04.58.

— Palo Alto Online Sports

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