Cardinal volleyball Cardinal volleyball (November 09, 2005)still in a battle

Unbeaten Washington holds commanding lead in the Pac-10 but Stanford hosts Arizona schools with second place at stake

by Rick Eymer

Stanford returns to Maples Pavilion for its next three matches with a chance to solidify its hold on second place in the Pac-10.

After splitting two matches last weekend, losing to unbeaten Washington, 30-21, 30-26, 30-16, on Thursday before knocking off Washington State, 26-30, 30-22, 30-22, 30-25, on Friday, the fourth-ranked Cardinal (10-3, 21-4) fell three games back of the Huskies in the standings but remain a half-game up on Arizona and USC.

Arizona (9-3, 17-4) visits Maples Pavilion on Friday night at 7 p.m. Arizona State comes to town on Thursday at 7 p.m. The Wildcats beat Stanford a month ago in Tucson.

Junior outside hitter Kristin Richards, the team's top threat following the season-ending injury to Cynthia Barboza, recorded a career-high 31 kills against the Cougars, tied for eight-best in Cardinal history.

Richards, who hit at a .426 clip, moved into 10th place on Stanford's all-time kill list with 1,238. She also had 16 digs.

Senior Katie Goldhahn, moved back to setter when Bryn Kehoe suffered an injury, had a career-high 68 assists, while senior libero Courtney Schultz recorded 20 digs, one shy of her career best. Schultz needs two digs to move past Teresa Smith (1,019) for 10th all-time.

Freshman middle blocker Foluke Akinradewo added 16 kills and hit .467 while junior outside hitter Nji Nnamani had 14 kills, 10 digs and hit .385.

Stanford coach John Dunning, who turned 55 on Sunday, was treated to a short celebration on the bus ride home.

Sports Information Director Bob Vazquez, who turned 56 on Tuesday, reported that Dunning received Michael Jordan's book and a seven-CD collection of Ray Charles' Greatest Hits from the team and staff.

Kehoe and Barboza each underwent surgery last week. Kehoe could return in time for the NCAA tournament.
Women's tennis

The Stanford doubles team of Alice Barnes and Anne Yelsey captured the title of the ITA National Indoor Championships in Columbus, Ohio on Sunday with an 8-5 victory over North Carolina's Jenna Long and Sara Anundsen.

Theresa Logar lost in the singles championship match, 7-5, 6-4, to Florida's Diana Srebrovic.

Logar won her first four matches, including a 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-1 victory over third-seeded Kristi Miller of Georgia in the semifinals. Barnes reached the semifinals of the singles tournament before falling to Srebrovic, 7-5, 6-1.

Stanford has now won seven doubles titles at the indoor championships.

In Tempe, Whitney Deason finished the ASU Thunderbird Invitational with consolation wins in singles, and in doubles with Celia Durkin. Deason notched a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Michigan's Kara Delicata in singles, and the Deason-Durkin pair posted an 8-4 win against Kansas State's Simosa and Klimova.
Men's tennis

Stanford senior KC Corkery lost in the semifinals of the ITA National Indoor Championships, 7-6 (3), 6-4, to Duke's Ludovic Walter on Saturday.

Corkery and Menlo School grad James Pade lost their first-round doubles match but came back to win the consolation title.

Matt Bruch became the first freshman to reach the ITA quarterfinals in four years after he won his first two matches.

In related news, Stanford grad Paul Goldstein won the USTA Challenger in Sudbury, Mass. on Sunday with a 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Frank Dancevic.

U.S. Open doubles champions and former Stanford stars Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan beat Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-4, to win the Paris Masters championship.
Men's water polo

Stanford slipped into fourth-place tie in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation following a pair of road losses over the weekend.

The Cardinal (4-2, 15-5) dropped an 8-7 overtime decision to top-ranked USC on Saturday and were then upset by UC Irvine, 8-5, on Sunday.

The MPSF regular season determines seeding for the conference tournament and helps decide the sole NCAA Final Four at-large berth.

With losses to USC, Cal and the Anteaters, it's likely Stanford will have to reach the championship match of the MPSF tournament to be seriously considered for the NCAA tournament.

Stanford twice rallied from two goals down to send Saturday's match into overtime. Senior Peter Varellas scored twice in the fourth quarter for a 5-all tie against the Trojans.

USC also took a two-goal lead in overtime but Stanford again rallied. The Trojans scored the game winner with three seconds left in the second overtime.

UC Irvine took an early 3-0 lead on Sunday en route to the victory.

Stanford hosts UC Santa Barbara on Saturday at 12 p.m.
Men's soccer

Stanford allowed one goal in two matches over the weekend and managed to salvage one point in the process.

After losing to UCLA, 1-0, on Friday night, the Cardinal (1-6-2, 4-10-3) fought host San Diego State to a scoreless draw on Sunday.

Stanford looks to finish the year on a good note when it travels to California for a 1 p.m. match on Sunday.

Stanford outshot the Aztecs, 13-6, with Dan Shapiro taking a team-high five shots. Andrew Kartunen recorded one save in gaining the shutout.

Kartunen has four shutouts and a GAA of 1.09. Stanford has been held to an 0.62 scoring average.
Women's swimming

Fourth-ranked Stanford (10-0) won the Big West Shootout on Saturday by defeating each of the other four teams in the championship pool on the second day of action at the Anteater Aquatics Complex in Irvine.

Stanford also won four dual meets on Friday.

Kristen Caverly won twice on Saturday to highlight Stanford's performance. She swam a 1:59.03 in the 200 back and a 2:01.37 in the 200 IM.

Other Stanford individual event winners included Lauren Costella (1,000 free, 9:55.97), Elizabeth Durot (500 free, 4:51.05), Dana Kirk (100 fly, 1:59.44) and Erica Liu (200 breast, 2:17.86). The Cardinal 400 free relay team also won in 3:25.35.

On Friday, Stanford won eight of the 16 events, led by Liu, a double winner in the 100 breast (1:04.63) and 200 beast (2:18.85).

Brooke Bishop (100 fly, 55.53), Laura Davis (200 fly, 2:03.94), Durot (500 free, 4:54.22) and Morgan Hentzen (1650 free, 16:37.98) also won events and the Cardinal swept the 200 medley relay (1:45.03) and 200 free relay (1:37.24). relays to open and close the day's action.
Field hockey

Stanford (7-14) won its first round match of the Nor Pac Conference tournament, but fell in each the semifinals and third-place match over the weekend.

Stanford's Missy Halliday and Bailey Richardson were named to the all-tournament team.

The Cardinal lost to Cal, 2-1, in the semifinals on Friday as tournament MVP Valentina Godfrid scored both goals for the Bears.

Stanford senior Tammy Shuer scored her first goal of the season, tying the score in the final second of the first half.

"This was a disappointing loss, especially when we competed so well," Stanford coach Lesley Irvine said. "All three games between Cal and Stanford have been phenomenal games of field hockey."

"It was disappointing to lose because we wanted so badly to beat Cal," Halliday said. "We set goals for this game and even though we didn't win, we reached our goals."

Stanford lost, 3-0, to Radford in the third place game on Saturday.

Sophomore Jess Zutz scored twice in Stanford's 5-1 opening-round win over Appalachian State on Thursday.

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