Jan. 14, 2009
STOCKTON, Calif. - Evan Romero had 16 kills to help No. 4 Stanford overcome an otherwise poor offensive showing Wednesday in a 30-27, 30-26, 30-25 victory over Pacific in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener.
Stanford (4-1, 1-0) pulled out a tight first set, but was in trouble in the second, falling behind 24-19. But the Cardinal closed it out with an 11-2 run.
"That's a good win for us," Stanford coach John Kosty said. "Any win in the MPSF is a big win."
Kosty, looking for answers, brought in freshman reserve Dylan Kordic to help steady the offense in the second set. Moments later, a productive run of jump serves by freshman Brad Lawson put Pacific on the defensive, allowing Spencer McLachlin the opportunity for several stuff blocks down the stretch to close out the pivotal set for the Cardinal.
"They're a good team," Kosty said. "They didn't allow us any streak points."
While Pacific (1-4, 0-1) has had difficulties against the rest of the MPSF, the Tigers always seem to play their best against Stanford. Last season, Pacific swept the Cardinal on the road for its only victory in a 1-21 conference season, and pushed Stanford to five sets in their second meeting.
But that didn't happen this time.
"The guy who really held us together the whole match was Evan Romero," Kosty said.
Especially encouraging has been Romero's hitting efficiency. Romero hit .419 against Pacific, while the rest of the Cardinal was a combined .167.
Despite leading Stanford in kills each of the past two seasons, Romero's career hitting percentage was only .191. So far this year, it's .349, just what Kosty was hoping from Romero this season.
Romero also had 10 digs and setter Kawika Shoji had 45 assists.
Stanford next travels to the chilly Midwest to play at No. 14 Ohio State on Friday and No. 13 Ball State on Saturday.