April 17, 2009
STANFORD, Calif. - In a matchup between a pair of top-five teams, No. 4 Stanford was unable keep up with top-ranked UC Irvine, 30-28, 30-24, 30-22, on Friday night at Maples Pavilion in the penultimate match of the men's volleyball season.
Stanford, on the bubble for home court in the first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs, must beat No. 9 UCLA on Saturday night and hope for a USC loss in Hawaii. Otherwise, Stanford will surrender the No. 4 seed to the Trojans for the eight-team MPSF tournament which determines the conference's lone automatic NCAA playoff berth. The Cardinal will play USC or BYU in the first round April 25.
Stanford (20-10, 13-8) led briefly midway through the first set, but the Anteaters took control the rest of the way. In doing so, UCI (23-4, 18-3) clinched the MPSF's No. 1 seed - thanks in part to Pepperdine's four-set loss to visiting BYU - and made itself the top contender for the NCAA tournament's only at-large berth should the Anteaters fail to secure the conference tournament title.
"They're a good solid team, and they have very few weaknesses," Stanford coach John Kosty said. "It's tough to score in streaks against them unless you come with your `A' game. And that's something we've got to get better at."
Stanford had its chances in the first set, closing within 29-28, but was unable to draw any closer. Evan Romero had 13 kills (.323) and Brad Lawson 11 (.308), but the Cardinal, which had only two blocks, couldn't stop a UCI attack that hit an incredible .457, the highest any team has hit against the Cardinal all season. UCI had only 10 hitting errors in 105 attacks.
"We just have to bounce back," Kosty said. "We're a good team, but we have to play better than we did tonight."
UCLA (14-14, 10-11) will not be playing for a playoff berth. The Bruins clinched the eighth and final spot by sweeping host Pacific on Friday.
The regular-season finale will be Senior Night for Stanford, which will honor Cameron Christoffers, Miki Groppi, Jarod Keller and Brandon Williams in a brief ceremony before the 7 p.m. match at Maples Pavilion.