March 1, 2002
Long Beach, Calif. - The seventh-ranked Stanford men's volleyball team picked up its tenth win of the season, defeating No. 10 Long Beach State 3-2 (30-27, 26-30, 26-30, 30-28, 15-11) Friday night at the Goldmine. Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, CA) posted a season and match-high 34 kills in 63 swings for the Cardinal.
Stanford improves to 10-7 overall and 9-5 in the MPSF. Long Beach State falls to 7-11 and 5-7 in conference play.
The Cardinal hit .464 to start the match off and take game one 30-27. Long Beach State then rallied to win back-to-back games to go up 2-1. Stanford managed to come back and win the fourth game 30-28 and controlled the final game, winning 15-11.
Toppel led the Cardinal with 34 kills and six blocks. Billy Strickland (Malibu, CA) added 14 kills and eight digs, while Marcus Skacel (Laguna Niguel, CA) and Paul Bocage (Princeton, NJ) contributed 11and 10 kills, respectively. Redshirt freshman Kevin Hansen (Newport Beach, CA) dished out 71 assists and junior libero Seth Ring (Bend, OR) recorded eight digs.
Nick Marbach finished with 24 kills to lead the 49er offense. Jeff Wootton and Tim May each added 16 kills, and May also recorded eight blocks.
Long Beach State hit .370 for the game to the Cardinal's .367. The 49ers also outblocked Stanford 14-9.
The Cardinal will have the rest of the weekend off to gear up for a three-match road trip next week. Stanford is set to face UC San Diego on March 6th, UC Irvine on March 8th and conclude its trip at UCLA on March 9th.
1 2 3 4 5 Stanford (10-7, 9-5) 30 26 26 30 15 Long Beach State (7-11, 5-7) 27 30 30 28 11