Jan. 31, 2003
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - Stanford University posted its second straight win over a top-10 opponent with a 30-28, 31-29, 27-30, 30-28 victory over eighth-ranked Cal State Northridge on Friday night at The Matadome.
The Cardinal, which improved to 4-5 overall and 2-3 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, upset then-No. 1 Hawai'i in five games last Friday night in Honolulu. Cal State Northridge dropped to 6-3 overall and 2-2 in the MPSF.
Stanford was led by senior middle blocker Paul Bocage (Princeton, NJ), who did not record a hitting error in 19 attempts. Bocage hit .789 with 15 kills and a match-high seven blocks. The .789 hitting percentage ranks as the 10th best single match performance in Stanford history.
Senior William Curtis (Whittier, CA) added 18 kills and six digs, senior William Strickland (Malibu, CA) had 15 kills and six digs and senior Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, CA) chipped in 13 kills and six digs.
Joe Nargi led the Matadors with 28 kills and five digs.
The stat sheet was almost identical, as the Cardinal out-hit the Matadors .329 (74 k-23 e-155 ta)-.321 (870-26-168) and each team recorded 50 digs. The Cardinal won the blocking battle 12.0-10.5.
In game one, Stanford jumped out to a 12-9 lead but the Matadors cut it to one with back-to-back points. The game was later tied at 24-24 before Stanford scored six of the final 10 points to record the 30-28 victory.
The Cardinal led 29-26 in game two before the Matadors reeled off three straight points to tie it at 29-29. Stanford answered with back-to-back points, and closed out the game on a block by Strickland and freshman Chris Ahlfeldt (Manhattan Beach, CA).
Cal State Northridge built a 22-16 lead in the third game, but Stanford cut the lead in half at 25-22. Stanford eventually cut the lead to two, but could get no closer as the Matadors prevailed 30-27.
In game three, Northridge led by as many as six points (22-16) before Stanford got within 25-22 on a In the decisive fourth game, Stanford hit .429 (22 k-4 e-42 ta) to .311 (20-6-45) for the Matadors. With the game tied at 28-28, the Cardinal used a kill from Curtis and a hitting error by Nargi to close out the match.
Stanford continues this six-match road trip at No. 12 UC Santa Barbara (3-6, 1-3) on Saturday night at 5:00 p.m. at Robertson Gym. The Gauchos fell in four games to No. 13 Pacific (5-4, 2-1) on Friday night in Santa Barbara.