All things being equal, and more or less they seem to be these days in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball, Stanford has Kathryn Plummer.
In a season just two weekends old spiced by upset after upset, the top-ranked and defending national-champion Cardinal were pushed to the limit Sunday by No. 3 Texas.
But in the end, Stanford had Plummer.
She had a career-high 34 kills in a 17-25, 25-18, 25-11, 21-25, 15-12 victory that left Stanford 4-0 and Texas (3-1) no doubt thinking about a December rematch.
There were three other matches Sunday involving ranked team and, yes, there was another upset as No. 17 Baylor won at No. 11 Marquette. The recaps follow.
There is just one match on the Monday schedule as Texas Tech of the Big 12 plays at Northern Illinois of the Mid-American.
Stanford 3, Texas 2: Plummer, the 2018 VolleyballMag.com national player of the year, had seven errors in 57 swings to hit .474. The senior outside hitter added two assists, two blocks and eight digs en route to a magnificent all-around performance capped by the match-winning kill.
Stanford, which last lost a match in August 2018, won its 36th in a row. Plummer’s 34 kills were the seventh-most in program history and the most since Alix Klineman — now a star on the pro beach tour — had 39 at Arizona State in 2010.
Freshman Kendall Kipp had 11 kills, hit .476 and had a block and two digs. Senior Audriana Fitzmorris had eight kills, three blocks and a dig, and sophomore Holly Campbell had eight kills in nine errorless swings to hit .889 and had a match-high seven blocks. Setter Jenna Gray had three kills in five errorless attacks, 60 assists, three aces, four blocks and two digs.
Senior Micaya White and sophomore Logan Eggleston had 19 kills apiece for Texas. White hit .364 and had two assists, three blocks and six digs. Eggleston, whose kill total was a career high, hit .302, had five digs, a block and three aces. Texas hit .309 for the match.
One of those aces came in the fourth set when Texas sided out to pull to 7-6 and then go ahead 18-7. In that run, freshman Molly Phillips had two of her 11 kills. She hit .450 and had two digs and a match-high seven blocks. Another freshman, Skylar Fields, had nine kills and five blocks.
Stanford, which hit .372 for the match, never trailed in the fifth when Plummer had nine of her kills, including the first three points of the set. Plummer had a kill to put her team ahead 12-11, but after Phillips had a kill to tie it at 12-12, the Cardinal ended it on kills by Plummer, Campbell and then Plummer again.
Stanford goes to Penn State on Friday to play the Nittany Lions and then Minnesota, while Texas goes to Wichita State and plays BYU.
Top 25: Baylor of the Big 12 is 5-0 after quite a successful road trip to Wisconsin.
First, the Bears upset No. 4 Wisconsin on Friday. Then Sunday in Milwaukee they dealt Marquette a 25-14, 27-25, 25-18 defeat as junior outside Yossiana Pressley continued to light it up. Pressley had 20 kills with no errors in 45 swings to hit .444. She had an assist, four blocks and seven digs.
Shelly Stafford had 13 kills with one error in 23 attacks, hit .522 and had two assists, eight blocks and two digs. Baylor, which hit .385, out-blocked the Golden Eagles 14-4.
Marquette of the Big East (5-1), still off the program’s best start since 1992, got 12 kills from Allie Barber. She hit just .070, but had three digs and three blocks. Hope Werch had 11 kills and hit .318 to go with an assist and five digs. Marquette hit .148 as a team …
No. 20 Hawai’i is 6-0 after beating visiting Denver 25-16, 21-25, 25-15, 25-18. Jolie Rasmussen led the Rainbow Wahine with 16 kills and hit .306. She had 12 digs and two blocks. Skyler Williams and Brooke Van Sickle had 10 kills apiece. Williams hit .316 and had five blocks, one solo. Van Sickle hit .389, had two assists, a block and three digs.
Denver of the Summit League, which was also 5-0 before the match, hit .085. Lydia Bartalo led with 11 kills, seven digs and two blocks. Ari Winters had nine kills, three blocks and two digs …
No. 22 Florida State of the ACC won at TCU of the Big 12 25-20, 25-20, 25-18 to improve to 3-2. Payton Caffrey led with 11 kills and hit .364 and had an ace and nine digs. Jasmyn Martin had 10 kills, two digs and a block. Audrey Nalls led TCU (3-3) with 18 kills, 20 digs and a block.
Around the nation: One Big Ten team was in action Sunday as Indiana beat visiting Yale 23-25, 25-15, 25-14, 25-16. The Hoosiers (5-2) were led by Deyshia Lofton, who had 17 kills in 26 errorless attacks to hit .654. She added seven blocks, three digs, two assists and an ace. Breanna Edwards also had 17 kills as she hit .324 and had six digs. Rebekah Nemeth had 12 kills and hit .400 for the Ivy League’s Yale (0-3) …
LSU of the SEC (3-2) won at Iowa State of the Big 12 (2-3) as freshman Samarah Hill had 18 kills and 11 digs in the 25-17, 21-25, 25-19, 20-25, 15-9 victory. Hill also had three blocks, one solo. Taylor Bannister added 11 kills, three digs and two blocks. Eleanor Holthaus led ISU with 16 kills, an ace, three blocks and 17 digs …
Three other SEC teams were in action Sunday.
Auburn (3-3) beat George Washington in Miami 21-25, 25-13, 25-22, 25-13 as Enija Bidzane and Val Green had 14 kills apiece. Skylar Iott had 16 kills for GW of the Atlantic 10 (2-4), which hit .045 …
Ole Miss (3-3) got past Tulane of the AAC 17-25, 27-25, 15-25, 26-24, 17-15. Emily Stroup led with 20 kills, two assists, four blocks and 15 digs. Anna Bair had 14 kills, two aces, a block and three digs. Tulane (5-2) got 20 kills from Lexie Douglas, who had two blocks and 20 digs …
South Carolina (3-3) swept Albany of the America East as the Mikaylas had nine kills each. Mikayla Shields hit .500 and had two blocks and three digs, while Mikayla Robinson hit .667 and had four blocks, one solo. Albany (1-5) hit .022 …
UCF of the American Athletic Conference is 5-0 after capping its home weekend with a 25-15, 25-21, 25-15 victory over Kansas of the Big 12. Anne-Marie Watson led a balanced attack with 16 kills. She hit .444 and had three blocks and two digs. Kristina Fisher added 13 kills and hit .440 and MaKenzie Chambers had 11 kills and hit .333. Kansas (3-2), which hit .134, got eight kills, three blocks and eight digs from Rachel Hickman …
Kennesaw State (5-2) swept High Point (2-5) as Jasmine Brown led a balanced attack with nine kills … Brown beat North Dakota in four as Makena Ehlert had 16 kills. Ashley Brueggeman had 18 for UND … Amelia Johnson had 14 kills and Casey Goodwin 13 as Liberty swept Davidson … Lindsey Toney had 23 kills as Abilene Christian got its first victory of the season, beating Prairie View in four. Toney hit .386 and had an assist, two aces, three blocks and five digs …
And New Mexico State is 6-0 after its 20-25, 25-16, 17-25, 25-15, 15-10 over UTEP (4-3). Savannah Davidson led with 19 kills and had two aces, three digs and four blocks, two solo. Megan Hart and Cat Kelly had 12 kills each. Hart had four blocks, one solo, and two digs, and Kelly had a block and 16 digs. Serena Patterson led UTEP with 12 kills.
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