Jan. 6, 2004
SANTA CRUZ, Calif - The Stanford University men's volleyball team opened the season with a three-game sweep of UC Santa Cruz. The Cardinal, who swept the Banana Slugs to open the season last year, won by scores of 30-21, 30-18, and 30-17.
The Cardinal, led by the strong play of sophomore outside hitter Ben Reddy, registered a .304 hitting percentage, while holding the hosts to a .052 percentage. Reddy paced the Stanford attack with a career-high 11 kills and recorded a .429 hitting percentage on the night.
"We had our first game mistakes, but on the whole it was a good match and got us off to a good start." said Stanford Head Coach Don Shaw.
Stanford will now pack its bags for Santa Barbara where the Cardinal will participate in the UCSB/Elephant Bar Collegiate Invitational this weekend. The Cardinal will be the No. 8 seed in the UCSB tournament and will take on No. 1 seeded Long Beach State in the first round of the tournament on January 9th at 7:00 pm. Stanford will then play again at 10:00 a.m. in either the championship or consolation semifinals and will conclude tournament play with another match Saturday evening. Last season, the Cardinal went 1-2 in the tournament to finish in sixth place.