Jan. 18, 2003
STANFORD, Calif. - The fifth-ranked BYU Cougars prevailed on The Farm in five games for the second time in as many days with a 30-22, 23-30, 30-28, 28-30, 31-29 over the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday night at Burnham Pavilion. The Cougars are 2-0 overall and 2-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, while the Cardinal is 2-4 and 0-2.
Stanford had five match points in the fifth game, the final one coming at 19-18. BYU finished the match with three straight points on a kill by Michael Burke and back-to-back blocks by Burke and Jaime Mayol.
Senior Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, CA) led the Cardinal with team-highs of 25 kills, 13 digs and five blocks. Senior William Strickland (Malibu, CA) added 14 kills, senior Paul Bocage (Princeton, NJ) chipped in 11 kills and senior William Curtis (Whittier, CA) contributed 10 kills and four digs.
BYU's Jonathan Alleman had 30 kills for the second time in as many nights, while Burke had 12 kills and eight blocks and Chris Gorny pitched in 12 kills and three digs. The Cougars hit .321 (80 k-28 e-162 ta) for the match, compared to .310 (73-24-158) for the Cardinal.
BYU out-hit Stanford .600 (14-2-20)-.100 (10-7-30) in the early going en route to an easy win in game one. Stanford then used a 7-3 run midway through game two to take a commanding 21-16 lead it would never relinquish.
Stanford led 25-23 in game three, but the Cougars reeled off five of the next six points to take a 28-26 lead. Stanford came back to tie it at 28, but back-to-back kills from Alleman gave the visitors a 30-28 win. In game four, the Cardinal stretched a 21-18 lead to 28-21 with a 7-3 run. The Cougars came back to cut it to one at 29-28, but a Toppel kill closed out the game.
Stanford returns to action on Wednesday when it visits No. 1 Hawai'i on Wednesday at 10:00 p.m. (PT). The Cardinal will also take on Hawai'i on Friday at 10:00 p.m. (PT).