April 5, 2002
Stanford, Calif. - The seventh-ranked men's volleyball team came back after losing game one to take a 3-1 (27-30, 30-27, 30-21, 30-26) victory over No. 13 UC Irvine on Friday night in Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal, playing their last home regular season game, got 23 kills from Curt Toppel (Pacific Paliades, CA) and 16 from Marcus Skacel (Laguna Niguel, CA) in Stanford's third consecutive MPSF victory.
Stanford improves to 15-8 overall and 14-6 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Irvine falls to 11-15 and 5-154 in conference play.
UC Irvine jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first game, and Stanford could not get any closer than three points. The Cardinal made a run down 26-18 to pull within 28-25 behind the hitting of Skacel. Stanford's rally came up short, falling 30-27. Erick Helenihi led the Anteaters and all players with eight kills.
Stanford found themselves down 3-1 to start the second game and then rallied to take a 10-8 lead, but could not pull away. The Anteaters kept the game close until a Toppel kill and an Irvine hitting error gave the Cardinal game point at 29-26. Irvine's Jimmy Pelzel added a kill, but Billy Strickland (Malibu, CA) pounded one down the line to give Stanford the 30-27 victory.
The Cardinal jumped out to an early lead and went on a 10-6 run to lead 25-18 in game three. Two kills by Skacel put the Cardinal up 27-21 when Doug Johnstone (Honolulu, HI) came off the bench to serve. Following an Anteater attack error, Johnstone served up an ace and Kevin Hansen (Newport Beach, CA) added a kill to take the third game 30-21.
With the score tied at 10-10 in the fourth game, Irvine jumped ahead 16-13. Stanford came back to tie the score at 18-18 and never looked back. Toppel added five kills, Bocage three and Skacel and Hansen two each to claim the 30-26 game three win and the match 3-1.
Toppel led Stanford with 23 kills and two service aces. Seniors Marcus Skacel and Seth Ring (Bend, OR) made the most of their final home match. Skacel finished with 16 kills, two ace serves and four digs. Ring tied a career and match-high 14 digs. Bocage recorded 13 kills and seven blocks, while Hansen dished out 62 assists.
Helenihi led the Anteaters with 25 kills, followed by 12 from Brenden Watumull and 10 from Kyle Weichert. Stanford held the blocking advantage 12-11 and hit a .350 clip to Irvine's .296.
Stanford will get the rest of the weekend off to prepare for its final regular season matches at USC and Pepperdine next weekend.
1 2 3 4 UC Irvine 30 27 21 26 Stanford 27 30 30 30