March 26, 2004
STANFORD, Calif. - The No. 9 ranked Stanford University men's volleyball team defeated the visiting No. 14 ranked UC San Diego Tritons, 3-0, Friday night in Burnham Pavilion. With the win, the Cardinal improve to 8-12 overall and 5-10 in MPSF play. The Tritons fall to 7-15 on the season and 3-13 in MPSF competition. Game scores for the match were 30-25, 30-27, and 30-24.
Despite nearly a three-week hiatus from competition, the Cardinal looked sharp, hitting .344 for the match.
"I wasn't sure how well we would pass the ball, but I thought we did a great job of that tonight," said Stanford Head Coach Don Shaw. "Our passing tonight allowed Kevin to run the offense the way he wanted."
The Cardinal jumped out to a 1-0 lead after taking game one, 30-25. The Cardinal hit a blistering .517 for the game. Sophomore outside hitter William Clayton paced the Cardinal attack with six kills in the game, while redshirt junior Pat Bomhack tallied five kills in six swings.
Stanford cooled off in game two, but still managed to win the game, 30-27. Bomhack led the way for the Cardinal with four kills, while junior middle blocker Craig Buell, redshirt junior setter Kevin Hansen and sophomore outside hitter Ben Reddy each chipped in three kills.
In the third and final game, the Cardinal turned up the defensive pressure en route to winning game three, 30-24. Led by Buell, Bomhack and sophomore middle blocker Chris Ahlfeldt, the Cardinal registered six blocks in the final game. While the defense was doing its job, Reddy was leading the offense, recording six kills in eight swings. Bomhack and Buell each hammered home four kills in game three for the Cardinal.
Bomhack led the Cardinal with a team-high 13 kills to go along with a .455 hitting percentage and seven block assists.
"Pat is becoming more of an offensive threat for us and we need that. He really showed that tonight," said Shaw. "Reddy did a good job off the bench for us as well."
Buell was the only other Cardinal in double-digit kills with 10, while Reddy added 9 kills off the bench and junior outside hitter David Vogel, Hansen and Clayton each chipped in six kills. Hansen did an excellent job of orchestrating the Cardinal attack with a game-high 43 assists to go along with seven digs. Vogel collected a game-high 10 digs, while sophomore libero Jeremy Jacobs tallied six digs.
Leading the way for the Tritons was Jim Waller with a game-high 14 kills and Adam Toren with 11. Nate Jones and Brooks Dierdorff handed out 21 and 20 assists, respectively for UCSD.
The Cardinal are back in action tomorrow night when they host the No. 2 ranked Long Beach State 49ers in Burnham Pavilion at 7:00 pm.