Jan. 21, 2001
STANFORD, Calif. - Sophomore outside hitter Curt Toppel had a match-high 30 kills and No. 8 Stanford rallied from a 2-1 deficit in games and a 10-6 hole in game five to upset No. 1 Pepperdine 30-28, 25-30, 26-30, 30-28, 15-13 at Maples Pavilion.
Stanford improves to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Pepperdine drops to 4-1 and 1-1.
After Stanford fought back from an early four-point hole to capture game four and even the match at 2-2, Pepperdine seemed to take control in game five. The Waves went on a 5-1 run to jump out to a 7-3 lead, and were still in command at 10-6 when a service error began the Cardinal rally. Toppel smashed a pair of kills and, when Josh Lukens and Paul Bocage combined on a stuff block, Stanford was within one at 11-10. Following a Wave block and a service error, a kill by Scott Wong gave Pepperdine a 13-11 lead, however, Stanford would score the final four points of the match. Toppel and Marcus Skacel each had kills, and a pair of Pepperdine errors - including an attempt by Wong off the antenna on match point - gave the Cardinal the 15-13 win.
Stanford forced a fifth game thanks to strong game four efforts from Bocage, Skacel and Brett Youngberg. Bocage had four kills and a block, Skacel had seven kills, while Youngberg added three kills, a block and an ace as the Cardinal rallied from an early 12-8 deficit to win 30-28. After Stanford won the first game 30-28, Pepperdine bounced back to capture games two and three. The Waves hit .485 (19 kills, 3 errors, 34 total attempts) and scored 15 of the game's last 22 points en route to a 30-25 win in the second game. Pepperdine's blocking made the difference in a 30-26 game three victory.
Toppel (30 kills, 10 digs) and Skacel (19 kills, 12 digs) gave Stanford its first two double-doubles of the season. Youngberg also finished with 10 kills, while Billy Strickland had a team-high six blocks. In four games off the bench, Bocage hit .375, had eight kills and four blocks. Libero Seth Ring provided nine digs, while Lukens had 70 assists and five kills in seven attempts (.714).
Four different Pepperdine players reached double-digits in kills, led by Wong's 18. Lance Walker finished with 17 kills, eight digs and five blocks, Fred Winters pounded 16 kills with seven digs, and Brad Keenan had 13 kills with a match-high 10 blocks. For the match, the Waves outhit Stanford .294-.281 and outblocked the Cardinal 20-10.
Stanford now embarks on its first road trip of the season, heading south to battle MPSF foes Cal State Northridge on Friday, Jan. 26 and UC Santa Barbara on Sat., Jan. 27.
Score by Games 12345 No. 1 Pepperdine (4-1, 1-1)2830302813 No. 8 Stanford (3-0, 1-0)3025263015