Feb. 21, 2004
STANFORD, Calif. -The Stanford University men's volleyball team fell to BYU, 3-0 in Smith Fieldhouse on the BYU campus in Provo, Utah. Game scores for the match were 30-24, 30-24, and 30-25. With the loss, the Cardinal fall to 5-10 on the season and 3-8 in MPSF play. The Cougars improve to 8-3 on the season and 6-1 in MPSF action.
Stanford, ranked No. 11 in the country, battled the No. 4 ranked Cougars in all three matches but were unable to get over the hump. In the first game, the Cougars grabbed an early 4-1 lead, but Stanford would keep the game close. A BYU 3-0 run late in the game sparked the Cougars to the win.
In the second game, Stanford grabbed a 5-1 lead, after a block by redshirt junior Patrick Bomhack and sophomore Chris Ahlfeldt. Stanford kept the lead with a four-point cushion, 16-12, off a block by redshirt junior Kevin Hansen. The Cougars pushed back and gained momentum after a kill and solo block by Victor Batista at 19-19. After a 4-0 run, BYU capitalized on Cardinal errors to finish game two, 30-24.
The Cougars hit a blistering .520 percentage in the third game. BYU grabbed an early lead and never looked back.
The Cardinal were led by juniors David Vogel and Craig Buell. Vogel tallied a team-high 11 kills on a .421 hitting percentage, while Buell added 10 kills, while hitting .400 for the match. Hansen handed out a team-high 36 assists, while Bomhack and sophomore outside hitter William Clayton added seven and six kills, respectively.
The two teams will be back in action tomorrow night at the Smith Fieldhouse at 7:00 pm. College Sports TV will kick off its Spikes men's volleyball schedule with a live telecast of the match. CSTV is available on Adelphia and Insight cable system, as well as on DirecTV, channel 610.