April 8, 2003
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THIS WEEK: The Stanford men's volleyball team concludes the 2002-03 regular season by playing three road matches in a five-day span this week ... The 10th-ranked Cardinal (14-11 overall, 11-8 MPSF) visits fourth-ranked Pacific (18-10, 12-7) on Tuesday, 11th-ranked UCLA (14-13, 9-11) on Friday and sixth-ranked UC Irvine (18-9, 11-9) on Saturday ... All three matches will begin at 7:00 p.m. ... This will be the fifth meeting between the Cardinal and Tigers in 2002-03, and the Cardinal holds a 3-1 advantage ... The teams split a pair of exhibition matches in Canada in October (10/18 - UOP 25-20, 25-16, 25-20; 10/19 - Stanford 17-25, 25-22, 25-17, 24-26, 15-10), and in 2003, Stanford prevailed 3-1 (30-32, 30-22, 30-22, 30-27) at UC Santa Barbara's E-Bar Invite on Jan. 11 and 3-0 (30-28, 30-22, 30-23) on The Farm on March 4 ... In the only meeting between the Cardinal and Bruins this season, UCLA prevailed 3-0 (30-27, 30-19, 30-26) on Feb. 22 ... UC Irvine and Stanford have split a pair of matches, with the Anteaters winning 3-1 (28-30, 30-27, 30-24, 30-24) on Jan. 10 at the E-Bar Invite and the Cardinal prevailing 3-1 (28-30, 32-30, 30-25, 30-23) on Feb. 21 at Stanford.
MPSF PLAYOFF CHASE: Stanford needs just one win in its final three matches, or a loss by either Long Beach State (15-12, 9-11) or UCLA, to clinch its fourth straight MPSF Playoff berth and 11th in the last 12 years ... The 49ers conclude the season with a home match against Cal State Northridge (17-10, 11-9) on Wednesday and a match at UC Santa Barbara (9-19, 4-16) on Friday ... The Bruins host Stanford on Friday and Pacific on Saturday ... The Cardinal is currently in fifth place in the MPSF, and the top eight teams in the 12-team conference qualify for the playoffs ... The top four teams in the standings will host MPSF Quarterfinal matches on Saturday, April 19 ... If the season ended today, Stanford would visit Pacific in the first round ... The other quarterfinal matches, if the season ended today, would be UCLA at Pepperdine, UC Irvine at BYU and Cal State Northridge at Hawai'i.