Feb. 23, 2008
Stanford men's volleyball knew how close to it was to defeating top-ranked BYU on Friday night, and responded Saturday night with its best performance (35-33, 30-22, 31-29) of the season in their sweep of BYU. The Cardinal (10-6, 6-6 MPSF) handed BYU their first loss of the season and beat them at the Smith Fieldhouse, a place they have only lost twice in the last two seasons.
The Cardinal was led by freshman Spencer McLachlin, who recorded 16 kills and had a .310 attack percentage. Senior Matt Ceran recorded 15 kills and sophomore Evan Romero tallied 14 kills in the victory. Sophomore Kawika Shoji had 53 assists in the match and recorded 15 digs. Freshman Jordan Inafuku also put forth 16 digs in one of the best performances of his young Cardinal career.
The first game went back and forth as neither team led by two points throughout the whole game. The game provided the crowd with 11 lead changes and had to go into extra points before the Cardinal pulled out the 35-33 victory. It was only the fourth time all season that BYU had lost the first game of a match this season.
The second game also stayed close, and the teams were tied at 21 all late in the game. Stanford then went on a 7-0 run to blow open the game and eventually hold on to win 30-22. The same held true in the third match, as both teams played close throughout, but the Cardinal held on for a 31-29 victory.
The Cardinal controlled the front line as they were able to put up 26 blocks and limited the Cougars into just 16 of their own. Sophomore Garrett Werner was the block leader with eight of his own. Stanford also didn't allow a single service ace to the top-ranked team in the country.
Stanford will next return to the court when they take on the Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors on Weds, Feb. 27 and Thurs, Feb. 28. Both matches will take place at Burnham Pavilion and will begin at 7:00 p.m.