Jan. 27, 2002
Stanford, Calif. - The No. 2 Stanford men's volleyball team won a tough battle with No. 6 UC Santa Barbara, 3-1, (30-26, 34-32, 26-30, 31-29) in Maples Pavilion this afternoon. Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, CA) led three Cardinal with double-digit kills, recording a match-high 27.
The Cardinal won their third consecutive match to improve to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the MPSF, while the Gauchos drop to 5-2, 2-2 in the conference.
Stanford jumped out to an 18-11 lead in game one behind the serving of William Curtis (Whittier, CA). The Gauchos tried to make a run of their own, but kills by Paul Bocage (Princeton, NJ), Chris Sandman (San Jose, CA) and Billy Strickland (Malibu, CA) got Stanford to game point at 29-21. Santa Barbara continued to fight off game point, before a service error gave the Cardinal game one, 30-26.
In a close game two, Stanford found themselves down 24-21. Both teams traded service errors and a kill by Strickland brought the Cardinal to within 25-24. The Gauchos continued to hit well and served game point at 29-27. Two kills from Toppel and a Strickland ace held the score at 29-29. Neither team could put a two-point rally together and the score remained tied at 32-32. Stanford got a huge block from Kevin Hansen (Newport Beach, CA) and Bocage, and Toppel put the game away on a kill to win 34-32.
Santa Barbara led 18-11 to start game three, but Stanford rallied back to get within 20-17 behind the serving of Bocage and hitting of Strickland. Down 27-20, the Cardinal rallied to hold the score at 28-25 on kills from Toppel and Marcus Skacel (Laguna Niguel, CA). A Stanford service error and an Alex Lienert kill gave Santa Barbara the victory in game three, 30-26.
Both teams battled back and forth, until Stanford rattled off four straight points and took advantage of Gaucho hitting errors. A Kyle Strache (Malibu, CA) and Skacel block tied the score at 28. Each team traded points and a Toppel kill knotted the score at 29-29, before two Santa Barbara hitting errors gave Stanford its fifth victory of the year.
Toppel led the Cardinal with 27 kills in 50 swings, followed by 10 each from Bocage and Strickland. Strickland also added 10 digs, while Hansen set for 51 assists. Jan Carlo Zegarra and Lienert led the Gauchos, each recording 17 kills. Both teams were evenly matched, with Stanford hitting a .345 clip to Santa Barbara's .309. The Cardinal also out-blocked the Gauchos 14-12.
The Cardinal will return to action this Tuesday, Jan. 29 and Wednesday, Jan. 30 for midweek matches with No. 4 Hawai'i. Both contests will take place in Burnham Pavilion with a 7 p.m. start time.
1 2 3 4 No. 2 Stanford (5-1, 3-1) 30 34 26 31 No. 6 UC Santa Barbara (5-2, 2-2) 26 32 30 29