[joemontes]

We won that year because of two things:

[1]  November 18, 2004 match @ Stanford vs. UW:

"Stanford, Calif. - Senior outside hitter Ogonna Nnamani tallied a career-high 37 kills as the ninth-ranked Stanford women's volleyball team upset top-ranked Washington, 3-2, tonight in Burnham Pavilion. Game scores were 28-30, 11-30, 30-27, 34-32, 20-18. The Cardinal improve to 20-6 on the year, 12-3 in the Pac-10 while the Huskies drop their first match of the season to go to 22-1, 14-1 in league play."

That match was one of the most memorable I've ever attended.  It was in Burnham, since Maples renovation was underway.  The change in crowd emotion from "we're toast!" to "WE WON!" was palpable.

[2]  As you point out: Ogonna Nnamani -- IIRC, the win over Florida in post-season [also a 3-2 victory] was a match where Ogonna announced in the locker room at the break that Stanford was NOT going to lose that match... and she made sure they didn't.

I keep looking for someone to show they have that presence/terminator factor/whatever to take over and dominate and, unfortunately, I haven't seen it yet.  Plenty of matches left, so it can still appear, and I'll keep hoping.

That most memorable match was a Washington loss that current Stanford assistant coach Courtney THOMPSON (the setter for Washington then) would rather forget, hahaha!

Incidentally, Bryn KEHOE was their highly-touted freshman setter who would set her Cardinal to a national championship.  Well, there's another similarity with the current Stanford team whose setter Kami MINER is also a highly-touted freshman.

[joemontes]

We won that year because of two things:

[1]  November 18, 2004 match @ Stanford vs. UW:

"Stanford, Calif. - Senior outside hitter Ogonna Nnamani tallied a career-high 37 kills as the ninth-ranked Stanford women's volleyball team upset top-ranked Washington, 3-2, tonight in Burnham Pavilion. Game scores were 28-30, 11-30, 30-27, 34-32, 20-18. The Cardinal improve to 20-6 on the year, 12-3 in the Pac-10 while the Huskies drop their first match of the season to go to 22-1, 14-1 in league play."

That match was one of the most memorable I've ever attended.  It was in Burnham, since Maples renovation was underway.  The change in crowd emotion from "we're toast!" to "WE WON!" was palpable.

[2]  As you point out: Ogonna Nnamani -- IIRC, the win over Florida in post-season [also a 3-2 victory] was a match where Ogonna announced in the locker room at the break that Stanford was NOT going to lose that match... and she made sure they didn't.

I keep looking for someone to show they have that presence/terminator factor/whatever to take over and dominate and, unfortunately, I haven't seen it yet.  Plenty of matches left, so it can still appear, and I'll keep hoping.

That most memorable match was a Washington loss that current Stanford assistant coach Courtney THOMPSON (the setter for Washington then) would rather forget, hahaha!

Incidentally, Bryn KEHOE was their highly-touted freshman setter who would set her Cardinal to a national championship.  Well, there's another similarity with the current Stanford team whose setter Kami MINER is also a highly-touted freshman.