Feb. 17, 2006
Irvine, Calif. - The No. 3 ranked team in the country was too much for Stanford to handle, as UC Irvine handily defeated the Cardinal tonight 3-0 at Crawford Court. Stanford dropped the first two games with identical 30-17, 30-17 scores, before breaking the 20 point barrier in a third game 30-24 loss. Stanford's record now moves to 4-12 overall and 2-8 in conference. UC Irvine improves to 11-3 overall and 6-2 in conference.
"UC Irvine is a great team and really showed it tonight," said head coach Don Shaw. "Their serving was particularly tough tonight and we had to battle tough to earn every point we won in the match."
UC Irvine hit .347 for the match, while Stanford only hit .101. Stanford was led by senior Ben Reddy's 14 kills and sophomore Matt Ceran's 5 blocks. Setters Jeremy Jacobs and Miki Groppi combined for 25 assists. UC Irvine was led by Jayson Jablonsky who pounded out 17 kills for a .517 average, and Aaron Harrell chipped in another 12 kills while hitting for a .688 average.
Next week the Cardinal returns home to The Farm to battle No. 12 USC on Friday, February 24th at 7 p.m. in Maples Pavilion. On Saturday night, February 25th at 7 p.m. Stanford will host No. 2 Pepperdine in Burnham Pavilion.