Jan. 30, 2002
Stanford, Calif. - The second-ranked Stanford men's volleyball team was swept by No. 4 Hawai'i (33-31, 30-25, 30-28) tonight in Burnham Pavilion. The Cardinal fall to 5-3 overall and 4-3 in the MPSF, while the Warriors improve to 5-2 and 2-0 in the conference.
In game one Stanford was down 11-6, but rallied back to tie the score at 20-20. Both teams traded points until the score was knotted at 30. A kill by Paul Bocage (Princeton, NJ) allowed the Cardinal to serve for game point, but Hawai'i tied the score on a Dejan Miladinovic kill. The Warriors then got two consecutive kills from Costas Theocharidis to take the first game 33-31. Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, CA) recorded a game-high nine kills for Stanford.
Stanford led 11-9, but the Warriors kept game two close. With the score tied at 20, Hawai'i then went on a 10-5 run to win the game. The Warrior's hit a .389 clip to the Cardinal's .222 in the second game.
Hawai'i jumped out to lead 15-10 in game three, but the Cardinal scored four straight points behind the serve of Kyle Strache (Malibu, CA). Kills by Billy Strickland (Malibu, CA) and William Curtis (Whittier, CA) got Stanford to within one at 15-14. The Warriors then pushed ahead 26-21, but the Cardinal took advantage of Hawai'i hitting errors to pull within one at 28-27. Stanford held off one Warrior match point on a Bocage kill, but Hawai'i's Brian Nordberg found a hold in the Cardinal's defense to win game three 30-28.
Stanford was led by Toppel's 13 kills and 10 each from Marcus Skacel (Laguna Niguel, CA) and Strickland. Freshman David Vogel (Poway, CA) recorded a match-high 10 digs in his first career start. Kevin Hansen (Newport Beach, CA) and Patrick Bomhack (Waukesha, WI) dished out 28 and 17 assists, respectively. Theocharidis led Hawai'i with a match-high 14 kills.
The Cardinal will be in action this weekend at the NCAA Preview Tournament in State College, Penn. Stanford will face No. 11 Lewis on Friday night and follow up with No. 6 Penn State on Saturday.
1 2 3 No. 4 Hawai'i (5-2, 2-0) 33 30 30 No. 2 Stanford (5-3, 4-3) 31 25 28