Kehoe assists in Stanford volleyball success

Sometime during this week’s Stanford Invitational, senior setter Bryn Kehoe will set up a kill for one of the Cardinal attackers. That assist will put Kehoe in second place on the all-time women’s volleyball assist list behind only Wendy Rush.

Rush’s mark of 5,003 assists, which she gathered between 1984-87, likely will fall later this season.

Kehoe already shares space with some impressive company. Rush was a four-time All-American, a Pac-10 Female Athlete of the Year and a member of the U.S. National Team for two years in 1989-90.

Kehoe is 63 assists shy of All-American Cary Feldman’s No. 2 all-time school compilation of 4,461 (1989-92) entering Thursday’s match against visiting St. Mary’s at 7 p.m. Stanford also plays Cal Poly at 7 p.m. on Friday and BYU at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Kehoe has a dilemma any setter in the country would enjoy trying to resolve when it comes to distributing the volleyball to one of a number of skilled hitters.

Just for starters there are two returning All-Americans in Cynthia Barboza and Foluke Akinradewo.

Barboza finished with 32 assists and was named the Tournament MVP of the Diet Coke Classic in Minneapolis after Stanford completed a three-match sweep with a 30-15, 30-25, 30-23 victory over No. 23 Ohio on Sunday.

Akinradewo had 13 kills against the Bobcats and hit a phenomenal .706, her best effort since last Oct. 28 at Arizona, when she hit a career-high .850.

Add the national high school player of the year in Alix Klineman and opponents don’t know where to turn to block sometimes.

Klineman led the Cardinal in kills in all three games, including 15 against Ohio. She joined Barboza and Akinradewo on the all-tournament team.

Barboza, Klineman, and Akinradewo in double figures in kills in Stanford’s 30-24, 20-24, 30-20 victory over San Diego on Friday night and in Saturday’s 26-30, 30-23, 30-26, 30-23 win over host Minnesota on Saturday.

Klineman, who also played on the U.S. Under-19 National Team, had 16 kills and hit .414 against the 12th-ranked Toreros. Stanford hit .371 as a team, and Klineman fit in nicely.

With so many hitters to choose, what’s a setter to do? Kehoe probably just goes with the hot hand(s). With her 139 assists last weekend she moved into third place, passing three-time All-American Lisa Sharpley, on the Cardinal all-time assists list with 4,398.

The current hitters are going to help Kehoe become the school’s career assists leader at some point.

Klineman got into the flow of the match from the beginning, spiking the ball onto the San Diego court with some authority and giving the Cardinal its first point of game one.

Needless to say, there was more where that came from.

The Toreros were first on the board in game three, but Klineman recorded two early kills and that was about it.

Freshman Gabi Ailes led Stanford with 10 digs, while Menlo School grad Alex Fisher saw action for the second straight match. Injuries have kept her off the court over her first two years. Against Ohio, Fisher’s crosscourt kill ended game one at 30-15. She later recorded a kill from the back row.

Klineman produced her first double-double in her third career match, getting 17 kills and 14 digs against Minnesota.

Barboza also recorded a double-double with 17 kills and 14 digs, while senior middle blocker Franci Girard recorded a career high with 15 kills, hitting .357, and Akinradewo had 14 kills and seven blocks and hit at a .393 pace.

Ailes recorded 18 digs, while Kehoe added a season-high 60 assists. Jessica Fishburn added 13 digs as Stanford won its first four matches for the first time since 2003.

The Cardinal is hitting .313 as a team, while limiting opponents, all of which are nationally ranked, to a .165 hitting percentage.

Four players have at least 35 kills. Akinradewo, who set the school record with a .431 hitting percentage last year, is off to a .517 effort this year.

Akinradewo has hit .700 or better in five career matches, and twice hit .800 or better.

Women’s soccer

It doesn’t get any easier for Stanford this week when the sixth-ranked Cardinal (2-0) travels down the Peninsula for a pair of games at Santa Clara.

Stanford won twice at the Terrier Classic in Boston last weekend, beating host Boston University, 2-0, on Friday, and then beat No. 10 Connecticut, 1-0, on Sunday.

Stanford sophomore Kelley O’Hara scored in the final 10 minutes of play against the Huskies.

Senior Lizzy George set up the goal with a long pass over the defense, while O’Hara got open on the breakaway.

Senior Erica Holland recorded her second straight shutout as Stanford won its first two matches for the first time since starting 8-0 in 2002.

Holland rejected four of the Huskies’ five shots in the second half, including a save with 32 seconds remaining to play.

Stanford put on a nice run in the final four minutes of the first half, controlling play and taking three shots, one by Allison Falk on goal.

The Huskies outshot Stanford, 14-11, though O’Hara took a game-high six shots, four on goal.

The Cardinal opens with No. 11 Virginia on Friday in Santa Clara and then plays No. 3 Notre Dame on Sunday at 11 a.m.

O’Hara recorded a goal and an assist against The Terriers.

Freshman Morgan Redman, who played eight minutes off the bench, also scored as the Cardinal won its season opener for the first time since 2004.

Stanford played without senior Shari Summers, who is nursing a hamstring injury.

The Cardinal went on the offensive from the start, keeping most of the action on the Terriers side of the line.

O’Hara gave Stanford the lead at the 33:20 mark, taking a pass from George and lifting it over the Boston goalkeeper.

The Terriers managed six shots during the match and Holland finished with four saves, her first coming in the 43rd minute.

Redman gave Stanford an insurance goal at 78:32. She took a crossing pass from O’Hara and drove it into the net. The Cardinal took 14 shots, 10 on goal.

“It is always hard on the road,” Stanford coach Paul Ratcliffe said. “We faced two tough teams and I am very proud of the effort that was given this weekend. It shows that we can have a real strong season if everyone keeps working hard.”

Boston University played in the NCAA tournament last year.

Men’s soccer

Dan Shapiro and Scott Bolkan scored within two minutes of each other late in the second half to draw even with visiting UC Santa Barbara and secure a 2-2 tie against the defending national champions in the season opener for both teams on Friday.

The game remained scoreless through the first half. The Gauchos scored at the 51:26 mark on a kick that curled into the top corner from a difficult angle. The next score came 20 minutes later on a blast from in front of the net.

Stanford began pressuring more, and got off three shots over the next three minutes. Shapiro finally put the Cardinal on the board with a shot that just glanced off the Gauchos’ goalkeeper’s hands.

Bolkan headed the ball into the next two minutes later to tie the score. Michael Strickland sent the ball in on a corner kick and Brant Bishop got in the air for Bolkan.

UC Santa Barbara had more chances in the overtime, but the Cardinal was up to the challenge and held on.

Men’s golf

Stanford opened the fall season in Japan at the Topy Cup on Tuesday.

The defending national champions are one of four United States universities invited to participate at Tanagura Country Club along with Alabama, Clemson, Duke and eight Japanese men’s teams in the three-day tournament.

“We are very excited to travel to Japan for the start of the season,” Stanford coach Conrad Ray said. “It is a wonderful trip and the first time Stanford has played in the event since 1994. The American competition will be strong and the Japanese teams may even be stronger. It will be a good measuring stick for our guys to see where their games are at after the summer break.”

Japanese men’s teams have won 12 of the last 16 Topy Cup titles, with New Mexico being the most recent American winner in 2004.

Field hockey

Camille Gandhi scored two goals, including the go-ahead goal midway through the second half, as Stanford beat visiting Pacific, 4-2, on Sunday in the NorPac Conference opener for both teams.

Bailey Richardson and Marlana Shile also scored for the Cardinal (1-0, 3-0) on a hot, breezy day.

Jess Zutz, Gandhi and Xanthe Travlos each scored a goal as Stanford beat visiting Missouri State, 3-1, in a nonconference match on Saturday.

Against the Tigers, Gandhi scored at the 45:39 mark. She got assists from Shile, who injected the ball perfectly, and Xanthe Travlos, who set it up perfectly for Gandhi.

Richardson scored an insurance goal in the final minute of play.

On Saturday, the Bears scored the first goal of the game, but it was all Stanford afterward as the Cardinal outshot Missouri State, 30-4, the most shots in a game for Stanford since taking 31 against Columbia last Sept. 3

Zutz scored the game-tying goal by redirecting a pass from Gandhi to the near post.

In the second half, Travlos and Hillary Braun executed a give-and-go for the goal.

Bailey Richardson fired a crossing pass after taking a penalty corner and Gandhi rocketed a shot into the net.

Senior Madison Bell made three saves in the net.

The Cardinal are 3-0 for the first time since starting 3-0 in 2002. Stanford has never won its first four games.

Stanford travels to Farmville, Virginia for three conference games beginning with Longwood on Wednesday. The Cardinal plays Davidson on Friday and Appalachian State on Sunday.

Men’s golf

The Golf World Nike preseason coaches’ poll ranked Stanford, the defending NCAA champions, first in the nation.

The Cardinal received 19 of the 32 first-place votes.

Senior Rob Grube was eighth on the Golf World Top 50 preseason Watch List. Sophomore Joseph Bramlett and freshman Sihwan Kim also made the list.

Stanford is in Tanagura, Japan this week for the Toby Cup, which concludes on Thursday.

Men’s rowing

Stanford grads Adam Kreek and Jamie Schroeder were on the water Friday at the World Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany.

Kreek, rowing with Canada’s men’s eight crew, helped the boat to the fastest time of the semifinal heats, securing his second Olympic berth in the process.

Schroeder rowed with the U.S. men’s quadruple sculls crew, which finished sixth in its semifinal.