April 14, 2006
La Jolla, Calif. - Stanford fell to UC San Diego tonight at RIMAC Arena with game scores of 31-33, 30-22, 30-13, 30-24. With the win, UC San Diego earned its first conference victory of the year, improving its record to 2-26 overall and 1-20 in the MPSF. Stanford's record falls to 4-22 overall and 2-18 in conference play.
In game one, the Tritons had two opportunities to win on game point but were turned back each time. Stanford's Ben Reddy put down a kill to lead 32-31 and a UCSD attack error gave the Cardinal the win at 33-31.
In game two with the teams tied at 11-11, UCSD opened up a 19-15 lead on a Stephen Shaw kill. Stanford would cut it down to 19-17, but the Tritons quickly went back ahead with two Daze aces to lead 22-17. Stanford would get no closer than five points the rest of the way as Daze closed out game two with a kill 30-22.
UCSD took game three easily, scoring 15 of the first 18 points and not looking back. UCSD hit .375 in the 30-13 win.
In game four UCSD opened up a lead of 20-15 on a Shaw kill. UCSD then pulled away and led 27-18 on a Reuter ace. The Cardinal closed in, but ran out of points as the Tritons won on a block assist by Daze and Shaw.
Reddy led Stanford with a match-high 22 kills and also pounded out three service aces. Matt Ceran also contributed 12 kills and a .417 hitting percentage for the match. Setter Jeremy Jacobs dished out 36 assists. The Tritons were led by Chris Sayers with 18 kills and a match-high six service aces.
The Cardinal will conclude its season Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Long Beach State. This will be the final match for head coach Don Shaw, and for seniors Chris Ahlfeldt, William Clayton, Jeremy Jacobs, Nick Manov, and Ben Reddy.