March 29, 2002
Stanford, Calif. - After nearly three weeks off from competition, the seventh-ranked Stanford men's volleyball team defeated No. 15 Long Beach State 3-1 (30-21, 30-27, 25-30, 30-27) on Friday night in Maples Pavilion. Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, CA) led four Cardinal in kill double-figures with a match-high 23.
With the win, Stanford improves to 13-8 overall and 12-6 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The 49ers fall to 11-16 and 7-12 in conference play.
The Cardinal never trailed and dominated the first game 30-21. Stanford hit a .500 clip to Long Beach State's .171. Back-to-back kills from Toppel and a 49er hitting error gave the Cardinal game one.
Game two proved to be much closer as no team could manage more than a two point lead. With the score tied at 25-25, a Billy Strickland (Malibu, CA) and a Paul Bocage (Princeton, NJ) kill put the Cardinal up 27-25. Following a Long Beach kill, Marcus Skacel (Laguna Niguel, CA) added one of his own and Bocage served up an ace to hold Stanford's lead at 29-26. Holding game point Bocage served it just wide, but Kyle Strache (Malibu, CA) came back with a kill to give the Cardinal the second game 30-27.
Long Beach then took control early of the third game and held the 27-23 lead. A kill by Chris Sandman (San Jose, CA) brought Stanford closer, but the 49ers took advantage of Cardinal service and hitting errors to take game three 30-25. Long Beach finished the game with a .640 hitting percentage to Stanford's .313 clip.
The fourth game went back-and-fourth with neither team jumping out to a big lead. With the score tied at 18-18 Stanford scored the next three points, but Long Beach rallied back to get within 23-22. A Toppel kill, Strickland kill and a 49er hitting error put the Cardinal up 26-22. Stanford got a huge kill from Kevin Hansen (Newport Beach, CA) to allow the Cardinal to serve for match-point at 29-26. Following a service error, Toppel ended the match with a kill down the line to seal Stanford's victory in the game 30-27 and the match.
Toppel led all players with 23 kills and hit a .450 clip for the match. Strickland added 13, followed by Bocage and Skacel who finished with 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Bocage also recorded a match-high nine blocks and Seth Ring (Bend, OR) registered nine digs. Hansen dished out 62 assists and added five kills and two service aces.
Long Beach State was led by Jeff Wootton and David Lee who each finished with 13 kills. Tim May was the other 49er in double-figure kills with 11.
Stanford will return to action tomorrow night to face the UC San Diego Tritons at 7 p.m. in Maples Pavilion.
1 2 3 4 Long Beach State 21 27 30 27 Stanford 30 30 25 30