March 6, 2002
San Diego, Calif. - The seventh-ranked Stanford men's volleyball team allowed UC San Diego to storm back from a two-game deficit to send the match into a fifth game, but came away with a 3-2 (30-28, 30-25, 25-30, 27-30, 15-8) victory over the Tritons on Wednesday night at the RIMAC Arena.
With the victory, the Cardinal improve to 11-7 overall and 10-5 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. UC San Diego falls to 3-14 overall and 1-13 in conference play.
At 5-5 in the fifth and deciding game, Cardinal junior William Curtis (Whittier, CA) served six straight points to put Stanford in position to take the match. The Cardinal hit a .636 clip to win the game 15-8.
Junior opposite hitter Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, CA) led the way for Stanford with team-highs of 27 kills and four blocks to go along with 12 digs. Junior Paul Bocage (Princeton, NJ) added 13 kills, while Marcus Skacel (Laguna Niguel, CA) and Curtis each recorded 12. Skacel also posted 10 digs and freshman setter Kevin Hansen (Newport Beach, CA) provided 59 assists and a team-high 16 digs. Stanford hit .350 for the match while the Tritons recorded a .262 clip.
San Diego was led by sophomore Jim Waller, who put down a career-high 31 kills to lead all attackers. Waller also added eight digs and four blocks to the Triton attack. Brian Foott recorded a match-high six blocks for San Diego, which outblocked the Cardinal 10-8.5.
The Cardinal will continue their road trip to UC Irvine on Friday night at Crawford Hall and follow up with a match at top-ranked UCLA on Saturday night.
1 2 3 4 5 Stanford (11-7, 10-5) 30 30 25 27 15 UC San Diego (3-14, 1-13) 28 25 30 30 8