COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Inky Ajanaku had 15 kills and nine blocks and Stanford beat second-ranked Minnesota in four sets Thursday night to reach the NCAA women's volleyball final.
The 6-foot-6 freshmen hitting duo of Kathryn Plummer and Audriana Fitzmorris combined for 25 kills in the 26-24, 25-19, 22-25, 25-22 victory.
Stanford moves on to the final against No. 4 Texas, which defeated top-ranked Nebraska 25-18, 25-23, 25-21 in the other semifinal.
Plummer, Fitzmorris and the 6-4 Ajanaku consistently got touches at the net on the majority of Minnesota's attacks. Morgan Hentz and setter Jenna Gray made up the rest of the freshmen quartet that proved vital in leading Stanford (26-7) to its first national final since 2008.
"People have been talking about our freshmen all week, about whether they're going to play like freshmen or not," Stanford coach John Dunning said. "And what I say is, yeah, they played like freshmen. They're really good. They're poised for freshmen, and they can handle it and they're continuing to learn and handle it better."
Down 20-17 in the fourth set, Minnesota's Samantha Seliger-Swenson blocked Stanford's Ivana Vanjak to tie the set at 21. Ajanaku, then, ripped a kill down the middle on the next play to put Stanford ahead for good. At 24-22, Fitzmorris killed an overpass at the net to send the Gophers home.
Big Ten Player of the Year Sarah Wilhite led the Gophers with 25 kills on 70 attempts. She had 10 kills in the first set. Freshman Alexis Hart was second on the team with 11 kills, five of which came in the first set.
Following a tight first set, the Cardinal defense took over. Plummer, Ajanaku and Fitzmorris assisted on eight blocks in the second set. Gray had three kills on four attempts for Stanford. Kelsey Humphries had eight of her 17 digs in the set.
"Stanford is a great blocking team," Wilhite said. "They played great out there. They played hard. I just think as hitters we really had to mix up our offense and our shots to kind of combat the tall block."
Stanford hit just .188 in the match with the Gophers swinging at a rate of .149. The Gophers had won 14 straight games before Thursday.
In the other semifinal, the Longhorns got 15 kills apiece from Ebony Nwanebu and Paulina Prieto-Cerame in their upset of Nebraska.
"We have a lot of self-confidence as a team going into it,'' Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said. "I've been to a lot of Final Fours and this is the calmest I've been going into it. I just had a feeling with this group that they would perform at a high level tonight. And they proved that.''
Nebraska's leading hitters, Kadie Rolfzen and Mikaela Foecke, combined for 19 kills. Foecke was set 30 times and swung at a rate of .333. Nebraska finished 31-3.
The match was a rematch of the 2015 national championship game in Omaha, Nebraska, where the Cornhuskers won in three sets. The Huskers beat Texas in late August, but the Longhorns attack proved too tough for the reigning national champs.
With Texas leading 19-18 in the third set, Texas went on a 6-3 run to close out the match, including three kills by Nwanebu. Texas advanced to its second consecutive national championship match.
In the final set, Texas had a .424 hitting percentage, with eight kills from Nwanebu.
Texas was practically flawless when the ball was in the air. The Longhorns had a total of just eight hitting errors on 109 attempts. Nebraska, on the other hand, had 21 hitting errors and got outblocked 10-4.
"Very uncharacteristic,'' Nebraska coach John Cook said. "I saw stuff I haven't seen all year tonight. But that's what happens in a match like this sometimes.''
Nebraska climbed out of a 2-0 hole and came back to win against Penn State in their regional semifinal match, but Texas had an answer any time the Cornhuskers had the chance to grab the momentum. ]
"I feel like that's the calmest environment I've ever been in and it's the most hectic tournament ever,'' Nwanebu said. ``So I just think everyone's emotions were in check and that really helped us win tonight.''
The Associated Press contributed to this report.