March 4, 2006
Provo, Utah - Stanford fell again tonight to the No. 1 ranked BYU in straight games at the Smith Fieldhouse. The Cougars won the match with games scores of 30-15, 33-31, and 32-30. With the loss, Stanford's record moves to 4-16 overall and 2-12 in the MPSF. BYU improves to 14-2 overall and 12-2 in league play.
Stanford was led by Ben Reddy and Jesse Meredith, who each had 12 kills. Meredith hit a team-high .733. As a team, the Cardinal hit .253 (42-19-91) and had 14 digs and 6.0 blocks.
Russell Holmes led BYU with 13 kills and three blocks while hitting a match and season-high .800. Yosleyder Cala also had 13 kills and hit .579 while Brian Rowley added a match-high nine digs. The Cougars hit .537 (54-10-82) for the match.
BYU was in control in game one from the very beginning, taking an 11-4 lead on six kills without an error. The Cougars continued to dominate, winning the game 30-15. Rodrigo Gomes put the game away, serving four-consecutive points to increase BYU's lead from 24-12 to 28-12. The Cougars hit .762 (17-1-21) and were led by Holmes' four kills on four swings. Victor Batista, Taylor Evans, Ivan Perez and Cala added three kills apiece. BYU limited Stanford to .034 (9-8-29) during the game.
Game two started where game one ended with the Cougars in control. BYU led 15-11 before the Cardinal reeled off five points to take its first lead of the match. Following a Cougar timeout, BYU quickly got back in control scoring four of the five next points to go ahead 19-16. Stanford came back again, tying the score at 21 and eventually had two chances to put the game away, leading 29-28 and 30-29. The Cougars came through on each point as Cala and Trent Sorensen each recorded kills. With the score tied at 31, Holmes recorded back-to-back kills to give the game to BYU at 33-31. The Cougars hit .424 (20-6-33) and were led by Holmes, who had five kills on five attempts, and Sorensen, who had four kills on five swings.
BYU trailed most of game three but stayed close and made a late run to take the game, 32-30. Trailing 22-23, the Cougar tied the game and then took a 24-23 lead on an ace by Rodrigo Gomes. BYU then took the lead at 25-24 on a kill by Cala. The Cougars had a match point at 29-28 but hit it out of bounds. With the score tied at 30, Holmes pounded two kills to claim the game and the match.
Stanford will return home next weekend to host No. 8 UC Santa Barbara on Friday night, and No. 6 CS Northridge on Saturday night. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. in Burnham Pavilion.