Feb. 27, 2004
STANFORD, Calif. - The No. 12 ranked Stanford University men's volleyball team rolled to a 3-0 win over the visiting La Verne Leopards Friday night at Burnham Pavilion. With the win, the Cardinal improve to 6-11 on the season. Game scores for the match were 30-19, 30-22, and 30-24.
"I thought we played well tonight," said Stanford Head Coach Don Shaw. "We passed well tonight and it allowed us to have some offensive structure."
The Cardinal hit an impressive .609 on their way to winning game one, 30-19. Stanford grabbed an early 11-6 lead thanks to an ace from redshirt junior Kevin Hansen. A block by junior Craig Buell and sophomore William Clayton pushed Stanford's lead to 20-9. The Cardinal closed out the game with a quick hit kill by Buell. Junior outside hitter David Vogel paced the Cardinal attack with five kills in five swings. Buell also added five kills, while hitting .714 for the game.
Stanford would go up 2-0 by taking the second game 30-22. The Cardinal cooled off a bit but still hit a solid .370. The Cardinal took a 21-16 lead on a solo block from Hansen. Stanford opened up a 27-20 lead on kill from Buell and cruised to the win. Redshirt junior Pat Bomhack led the Cardinal with six kills in the game, while Buell and Vogel added three each.
The Cardinal raced out to an 11-8 lead on a quick hit kill from Buell. Stanford would extend that lead to 14-9 when sophomore outside hitter Nick Manov hammered home a kill. A block by Buell and Reddy gave the Cardinal a 21-11 advantage. The Leopards went on a 11-3 run to cut the Cardinal's lead to 24-21. Stanford responded with a run of its own, capped by a kill by Manov to seal the win for the Cardinal.
For the match, the Cardinal were led by Vogel who pounded home 12 kills, while Buell added 10 kills. Hansen handed out a game-high 40 assists and guided the Cardinal to a .453 hitting percentage.
The Leopards were led by Matt Cornell who registered a game-high 15 kills, while Dwayne Wibeto chipped in 10 kills.
The Cardinal pack their bags for a two-game road trip to Southern California. Stanford will play first at No. 2 UCLA on March 5th before traveling to No. 9 UC Irvine on the 6th. The Cardinal defeated the Bruins and the Anteaters on January 16th and the 17th.
"The MPSF is so strong and the opposition is much different than what we saw this week," said Shaw. "We need to maintain the intensity that we had tonight and bring that with us on the road."