Jan. 12, 2002
Provo, Utah - After upsetting defending champion BYU last night, the Stanford men's volleyball dropped a close 3-2 (30-27, 26-30, 31-29, 28-30, 13-15) decision to the Cougars on Saturday night at the Smith Fieldhouse. Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, CA) notched a match-high 32 kills and Marcus Skacel (Laguna Niguel, CA) added 15 for the Cardinal in their first loss of the season.
Stanford drops to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in MPSF play, while BYU moves to 1-1 on the season and 1-1 in the conference.
For the third straight match Stanford won the first game 30-27, but dropped the second 30-26. The Cardinal jumped out to a two games to one lead, winning game three 31-29. Stanford recorded a .429 hitting percentage to the Cougars' .282. BYU then came back to force game five with a 30-28 victory in game four. The trend continued for a close game as both teams battled to the end, but BYU held on to defeat the Cardinal 15-13 in the fifth and final decisive game.
Toppel added five blocks to his match-high 32 kills in 53 swings (.472 hitting percentage). Billy Strickland (Malibu, CA) recorded his second double-double of the season with 12 kills and 10 digs, and hit a .688 clip. Kevin Hansen (Newport Beach, CA) dished out a career-high 66 assists and also recorded eight digs. Freshman Chris Sandman (San Jose, CA) added nine kills and a team-high six blocks.
The Cardinal will continue MPSF action on the road when they travel to Stockton on Tuesday, Jan. 15 to face Pacific. Match-time is set for 7 p.m.
1 2 3 4 5 STANFORD (2-1, 1-1) 30 26 31 28 13 BYU (1-1, 1-1) 27 30 29 30 15