Oct. 19, 2002
CALGARY, Alberta, Canada - Senior outside hitter Billy Strickland (Malibu, CA/Harvard-Westlake HS) had a match-high 20 kills to lead Stanford University to a 23-25, 25-12, 25-22, 25-22 victory over the University of Regina on Saturday morning at the Husky Dino Cup.
With the win, the Cardinal (2-1) advances to gold medal match of the four-team Husky Dino Cup against Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rival the University of the Pacific (3-0) on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. (Pacific Time). Regina (0-3) will face the host school --- the University of Calgary (1-2) --- for the bronze medal at 4:00 p.m. (Pacific Time).
After a slow start in game one, the Cardinal dominated Regina the rest of the way. Stanford, which overcame 17 service errors in the match, held Regina to a -.269 (5 k-12 e-26 ta) hitting percentage in the easy game two victory. Stanford then hit .312 (15-5-32) and .400 (17-5-30), respectively, in the third and fourth games to post its second straight pool play victory.
In addition to the 6-foot-9 Strickland's 20 kills and .368 (20-6-38) hitting percentage, the Cardinal received 10 kills and eight digs from senior William Curtis (Whittier, CA/Harvard-Westlake HS). Freshman middle blocker Chris Ahlfeldt (Manhattan Beach, CA/Mira Costa HS) added a team-high seven blocks, three kills and three digs, while sophomore David Vogel (Poway, CA/Poway HS) had a team-high nine digs.
Ryan Bohn led Regina with 13 kills, four digs and four blocks.
In the other Saturday morning match, the Calgary women defeated the University of Saskatchewan 25-19, 25-20, 18-25, 25-21.