Feb. 1, 2003
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The 10th-ranked Stanford Cardinal won its third consecutive match, and concluded a weekend road sweep in Southern California, with a 35-37, 34-32, 25-30, 30-21, 15-8 victory over 12th-ranked UC Santa Barbara on Saturday night at Robertson Gym.
Stanford, which recorded a 3-1 win at No. 8 Cal State Northridge on Friday night, improved to 5-5 overall and 3-3 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Gauchos fell to 3-7 and 1-4.
UC Santa Barbara took a two games to one advantage, but the Cardinal shut down the Gaucho attack in the final two games to post the come-from-behind victory. Stanford prevailed 30-21 in game four as it held the Gauchos to just an .086 (14-11-35) hitting percentage. The Cardinal then posted a dominating 15-8 victory in game five, as it out-hit the hosts .500 (9-1-16)-(-.048) (5-6-21).
Senior William Strickland (Malibu, CA) led the winners with 18 kills, six digs and four blocks, while senior Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, CA) had 16 kills, five digs and three blocks. Senior middle blocker Paul Bocage (Princeton, NJ) hit .500 with 13 kills and nine blocks. In the two matches this weekend, Bocage hit .641 (28 k-3 e-39 ta) with 28 kills and 16 blocks.
Matt Boelk and Keith Busam had 18 kills apiece for the Gauchos.
Stanford out-hit the Gauchos .395 (76-18-147)-.254 (85-40-177) for the match, and also enjoyed an impressive 16.0-9.0 edge in the blocking department.
The Cardinal concludes this six-match road swing next weekend at No.4 Pepperdine (7-1, 5-0) on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and USC (2-6, 1-4) on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.