Jan. 19, 2008
No. 6 Stanford played admirably, but lost to a very strong opponent in No. 2 Pepperdine 3-1 (30-20, 30-23, 20-30, 30-20) Saturday night at Burnham Pavilion. The loss snapped Stanford's three-game winning streak and was their first loss at home in 2008. Junior Cameron Christoffers came off the bench and provided a big spark in the strong third game by recording six kills on seven attacks.
Pepperdine is always a challenge, but in the first game the Wave played nearly flawless volleyball and ran away with the opening fram. Pepperdine jumped out to an early 12-7 lead and had the Cardinal down 19-10 very quickly. The Waves hit .394 as a team, making it very difficult for the Cardinal front line as they seemed to deflect almost every Stanford attack. The Waves finished with 29 total blocks, compared with only 10 for the Cardinal in the match. Pepperdine finished the first game by winning 30-20 and holding the early 1-0 match lead.
The Cardinal showed a little more life in the second game, but committed a lot of unforced errors, which kept them from gaining any kind of serious momentum. The Waves once again ran out to a 17-11 advantage and didn't look back as they kept the Cardinal no closer than six points down. Waves junior J.D. Schleppenbach ended the game, and finished with 21 kills, which was a team-high.
Even with the 2-0 deficit the Cardinal players never seemed to lose energy. In between games two and three, Stanford was still very upbeat and still extremely optimistic about their chances. The positive outlook certainly helped in the third game as the Cardinal blitzed Pepperdine 30-20 and played arguably their best game of the season. Head Coach John Kosty inserted junior setter Miki Groppi and junior libero Jarod Keller and the moves immediately paid off. Groppi provided lots of energy and finished with 27 assists, which was a team-high. Junior Brandon Williams also started the third game and continued his hot play, contributing six kills on only 10 attacks.
While the Cardinal was unable to take down the Waves in the fourth game, they played them close the entire way and gave the second best team in the country all they could handle. The Waves won the final game 30-20 and won the match to improve to a perfect 4-0 on the young season.
The Cardinal once again were led by sophomore Evan Romero and senior Matt Ceran, who each had 14 kills in the match.
Stanford will return to the court on Thurs, Jan. 24 when they take on CS Northridge on the road, before traveling to Santa Barbara and taking on UCSB the next day. Both matches will begin at 7:00 p.m.