Feb. 15, 2003
STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford University men's volleyball coach Don Shaw picked up his 500th career victory on Saturday night at Burnham Pavilion as the seventh-ranked Cardinal defeated UC San Diego 30-24, 34-32, 31-33, 30-24.
Shaw now owns a combined men's and women's record of 500-101 in 20 seasons on The Farm. He compiled a record of 440-70 with four NCAA Championships in 16 years with the Cardinal women, and is 60-41 in four seasons with the men's program.
"I hadn't given this any thought until by eight-year old son James mentioned it to me," Shaw said. "It's a nice accomplishment. I've had a lot of great players and assistant coaches during my time here. I'm just happy to have been able to coach at Stanford for all these years."
The Cardinal (7-7 overall, 5-5 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) jumped off to a good start in game one by taking a 13-7 lead off of back-to-back kills by David Vogel. The Tritons (3-9, 0-8) could get no closer than two points the rest of the game as the hosts rolled to a 30-24 victory.
In game two, the Cardinal broke a 32-32 tie, and closed out the game, on a Triton hitting error and a kill by senior William Strickland.
UC San Diego answered back in game three when it broke a 31-31 tie thanks to a service error and a hitting error by the Cardinal.
In game four, Stanford stretched a 20-17 lead to a commanding 25-18 advantage thanks to a 5-1 run. Strickland closed out the match with a kill on the Cardinal's first match point.Stanford received a pair of impressive performances from the middle blocker position as Paul Bocage hit .560 with a double-double of 16 kills and 10 blocks and Craig Buell hit .636 with 16 kills and seven blocks.
"Our guys really had to scramble tonight because UC San Diego is a hard team to put away," Shaw said. "Our middle blockers played very well, and I thought our blocking was as good as it has been all year."
Jim Waller had 23 kills, five digs and four blocks to lead the Tritons.
Stanford continues this lengthy homestand next weekend when it hosts UC Irvine on Friday and UCLA on Saturday. Both matches begin at 7:00 p.m. at Burnham Pavilion.