March 30, 2002
Stanford, Calif. - The seventh-ranked Stanford men's volleyball team clinched a spot in the MPSF Tournament and cruised to a 3-0 (30-24, 30-23, 30-20) victory over visiting UC San Diego Saturday night in Maples Pavilion.
The Cardinal move to 14-8 on the season and 13-6 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. San Diego falls to 5-19 overall and 1-18 in conference play.
Stanford used six kills by Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, CA) and five each from Paul Bocage (Princeton, NJ) and Kyle Strache (Malibu, CA) to take the first game 30-24. The Cardinal continued to dominate winning game two 30-23 behind four kills from Marcus Skacel (Laguna Niguel, CA) and Toppel.
The Cardinal then hit a .810 clip in the third game to complete the sweep over the Tritons, 30-20.
Toppel finished with a match-high 15 kills and Bocage was the only other player to record double-figures in kills with 11. Skacel pounded nine kills, hit for a .615 clip and posted a match-high 10 digs. Redshirt freshmen Kevin Hansen (Newport Beach, CA) and Patrick Bomhack (Waukesha, WI) split the setting duties and combine for 46 of Stanford's 49 assists. Bomhack tallied a match-high 28 and helped his cause finishing with three kills on four attempts.
Griffin Cogorno and Jim Waller led the Tritons with nine and eight kills, respectively. Stanford out-hit San Diego for the match 51-37 and finished with a .464 hitting percentage to the Tritons' .155.
Stanford will next host rival California on Tuesday night and conclude its regular season home schedule on Friday, April 5th against UC Irvine. Both matches are slated to start at 7 p.m. in Maples Pavilion.
1 2 3 UC San Diego (5-19, 1-18) 24 23 20 No. 7 Stanford (14-8, 13-6) 30 30 30