The Barometer Online

Issue date: 11/21/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: John Castle Kristin Murray had eight kills and seven digs for the Beavers against Stanford Friday night in Gill, but OSU was still swept by the Cardinal 30-16, 30-16 and 30-24.

The OSU volleyball team hoped that coming into matches against Cal and Stanford, the emotional element of senior weekend just might give the Beavers the boost they would need to pull off an upset.

No such luck.

Oregon State fell to Stanford 30-16, 30-16 and 30-24 Friday night in Gill in Abby Windell, Brittany Cahoon and Taylor Studzinski's last games in Corvallis.

"I kind of knew how the game was going to go, but it was still hard," Cahoon said. "But it still hasn't totally hit me because I have practice next week."

The Beavers (0-16 Pacific-10, 3-22) stayed close early in the first two games, but Stanford's height - the Cardinal had just one player under 5-foot-11 - was too much for OSU in the first game. OSU kept the second game within four for awhile, but the Cardinal (14-2, 23-3) strung together seven unanswered points to put away the contest.

Freshman Bree Knitter came off the bench in the third game and gave OSU a spark, slamming down a ferocious kill to pull the Beavers within four, 21-17. She finished the match with three kills and three blocks in her best outing of the season.

"Bree played very well," OSU coach Taras Liskevych said. "She's a kid that we need to give more playing time to and it will be fun to see these kids - the freshmen - in the future."

In her last home match, Brittany Cahoon had a solid night, recording seven kills and seven digs. Junior Kristin Murray finished with eight kills and seven digs and freshman Rachel Rourke finished the match with 10.5 points on eight kills.

Thursday night the Cal Bears (19-8, 8-8) were too much for the Beavers, beating OSU 30-24, 30-17 and 30-25. Angie Pressey led the Bears with 16 kills, while OSU's Rourke and Murray tallied 14 and 11 kills, respectively.

The seniors will have one more chance to get a Pac-10 win this Friday and Saturday when they travel to USC and UCLA.

"There were a lot of emotions tonight. Those seniors are special people and have left a lot on the floor here the last four years," Liskevych said. "We're going to miss them. They're good people and have been great role models of what we want from our players off the court."

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