Feb. 21, 2001
Sophomore Curt Toppel had a match-high 20 kills to lead the fourth-ranked Stanford Cardinal to a 3-0 sweep of No. 11 Pacific tonight in Maples Pavilion. Game scores were 30-24, 30-27, 30-27.
Stanford improves to 8-1 overall, 5-1 in conference action, while the Tigers fall to 4-5, 2-4 in the MPSF.
The Cardinal had a another solid match defensively notching 41 digs to Pacific's 26. Stanford hit .456 for the match, committing only 12 errors on 103 attempts.
After taking game one, Stanford saw a back and forth battle, until the Cardinal grabbed a slim 26-23 lead on a kill by Marcus Skacel. Skacel would get Stanford to game point at 29-26 on a kill but UOP'sTim Gerlach would slam home a kill to get Pacific to 27-29. The Cardinal, however, proved to be too strong, taking game two on a kill by Curt Toppel.
Game three started close as the two squads tied at seven-all. Stanford would push to 9-7 on back-to-back kills by Toppel. The Tigers would stay within two points of the Cardinal until a kill by Kyle Strache put Stanford up 18-15. The Cardinal would keep the three-point edge on UOP until they closed the gap to two points at 24-26. Toppel's fourth ace of the night would push the lead to 27-24 but a Stanford error and kill by Pacific's Sean Rodger's closed the gap to 26-27. An untimely Tiger service error gave the Cardinal the 28-26 lead. A UOP kill would get Pacific to 27-28 but a hitting error by Vladimir Andric gave Stanford match point at 29-27. A Toppel kill would seal the 30-27 win for the Cardinal.
Cardinal Marcus Skacel hit a stellar .615 on the evening while notching 18 kills and a team-high nine digs. Brett Youngberg added 10 kills and five digs. Kyle Strache led the team with four blocks while Curt Toppel tallied four services aces, including three in a row in game one.
The Tigers were led by Geir Eithun's 20 kills and libero Aaron Wachtfogel's match-high 10 digs.
Stanford takes on USC on Friday, February 23 at 7 p.m. in Maples Pavilion in continued actions.
No. 4 Stanford def. No. 11 Pacific, 3-0.