On a night when six seeded teams were upset, the top-ranked Stanford women’s volleyball team did not falter after following a first-round win over Santa Clara with a victory over Sacramento State on Saturday night. The pair of sweeps puts the Cardinal into next week’s Stanford Regional, where the team will host three familiar opponents in Cal Poly, Oregon and No. 8 UCLA.

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Foluke Akinradewo improved her nation-leading hitting percentage in Stanford’s subregional wins last weekend. The Cardinal hosts Cal Poly, Oregon and UCLA in this week’s Regional. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/8302
Augustin Ramirez

Foluke Akinradewo improved her nation-leading hitting percentage in Stanford’s subregional wins last weekend. The Cardinal hosts Cal Poly, Oregon and UCLA in this week’s Regional.

Sacramento State (29-8) beat Minnesota (18-13) in the first match Friday to earn a spot in Saturday’s second round and the Cardinal then swept Santa Clara (19-12) to advance as well. Freshman Alix Klineman had a team-high 19 kills on .425 hitting as well as seven blocks in Stanford’s 30-20, 30-28, 30-27 win.

“I think the biggest thing for me tonight was to be patient with myself,” Klineman said of her first NCAA match. “I can get frustrated pretty easily and I just focused on giving back to my team. I think our team played pretty well. We had a few hiccups, but for the most part, I think we executed very well today.”

Stanford built a five-point lead early in the first game against the Broncos and then saw it balloon to eight at 15-7 behind kills by three different hitters. The Cardinal finished the game with a three point run — a block by Klineman and junior middle blocker Foluke Akinradewo, another by Akinradewo and junior right side Erin Waller and a service ace by senior middle blocker Franci Girard.

The Broncos stayed close to the Cardinal at the start of the second game, but Stanford broke a 10-all tie with a 5-1 run. Santa Clara did not back off, battling back to tie the game again at 25. The Cardinal never let the Broncos take the lead and put the game away with an Akinradewo kill.

After Stanford took an early 11-8 lead in the third game, Santa Clara came back with five straight points to take the lead. The Broncos stayed ahead by a point or two until Klineman came alive. Down by a point at 20-19, Stanford strung together six points in a row — two kills and three solo blocks by Klineman and a kill by Akinradewo. Santa Clara could not bounce back, and Girard ended the match with a kill.

Behind Klineman on offense, Akinradewo had 11 kills and hit .556 while junior outside hitter Cynthia Barboza chipped in 10 kills. The Cardinal hit .395 in the match with only eight hitting errors. Brittany Lowe had a match-high 20 kills for the Broncos.

Klineman’s seven blocks led Stanford, as the team finished with 12 to Santa Clara’s five. The Broncos’ Taylor O’Brien finished with a match-high 15 digs while freshman libero Gabi Ailes led to the Cardinal with 12.

In Stanford’s second sweep of the weekend, the Cardinal offense was nearly unstoppable, powering to the 30-23, 30-11, 30-28 victory over Sacramento State.

Stanford jumped ahead immediately in the first game, leading by double digits at 17-7. The Cardinal reached game point at 29-14 on a solo block by Girard, but then saw Sacramento State score nine straight points — including four kills and two blocks by Hornet Lindsey Haupt — before Waller finally sealed the win with a kill.

The Cardinal had no such struggles in the second game, scoring eight of the first nine points and never looking back. With Stanford up 15-6, senior setter Bryn Kehoe found four different hitters in a seven-point run. Girard got the final kill to end the 30-11 game.

“I thought that game two was a big thing,” coach John Dunning said. “We’ve been playing well in game one, [but] in game two, we sometimes let the intensity drop, and I thought we played great in Game two. In game three, I think that Sac State just raised their level and put pressure on us.”

The Hornets came out of the locker room with renewed intensity in the third game and made the Cardinal earn its sweep. The Hornets’ Missie Stidham capped a four-point run with an ace to take the lead for the first time in the match at 12-11. The teams traded points and small leads down the stretch, with Sacramento State tying the game as late as 28-all. Klineman gave the Cardinal game point with a kill and Sacramento State hit out to end the match.

Barboza and Akinradewo finished with 16 kills each, hitting .467 and .591, respectively. Akinradewo is now hitting .498 on the season, an NCAA record. Klineman added 11 kills on the night at a .476 clip and Girard hit an even .500 with nine kills. Stidham and Haupt had 13 apiece for Sacramento State.

The Cardinal out-dug the Hornets 53-35 behind 13 each by Ailes and freshman outside hitter Cassidy Lichtman, a career high for Lichtman. Akinradewo led the net defense with five of Stanford’s nine blocks, including a solo, and Kehoe served two of Stanford’s six aces.

The Cardinal will now host the Regional competition at the end of the week, competing for a spot in the Final Four in Sacramento on Dec. 13 and 15. Stanford is seeking its seventh national title in school history and second in four years — Kehoe and Girard won as freshmen in 2004.