April 25, 2009
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STANFORD, Calif. - A Stanford men's volleyball team that carried momentum and confidence into the postseason was unable to channel those into a playoff victory Saturday.
The Cardinal captured the first two sets, but was unable to hold on in a 20-30, 27-30, 30-27, 30-24, 15-11 loss to USC in the opening round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament, before 1,191 at Maples Pavilion.
"We had a lot of confidence that we would win the match," Stanford coach John Kosty said. "But it wasn't our night."
Stanford (21-11), the nation's No. 4-ranked team, entered its first home playoff match since 2003 having won 13 of its final 17 regular-season matches. Stanford accomplished its regular season goal by finishing among the top four in the rugged MPSF and earning first-round homecourt. And, Stanford broke out strongly against USC, using strong serving and passing to hit for a high percentage and take away the Trojan block.
But as the initial Stanford thunder subsided, USC grabbed the momentum back and put the Cardinal on its heels, hitting .462 over the final three sets and leaving Stanford in scramble mode much too often. USC's sideout percentage over that span was 84 percent.
Stanford fell behind 5-1 in the fifth set before closing to within 7-6 on a USC attack error. But after a Trojan kill, the Cardinal was unable to draw as close again.
Evan Romero had 21 kills (.348) and Kawika Shoji had 61 assists for the fourth-seeded Cardinal, while Murphy Troy had 28 kills (.380) and Riley McKibbon had 69 assists for USC (18-10), which advances to an MPSF semifinal against No. 1 UC Irvine.
"Overall, we played well," Kosty said. "USC has good players and those good players rose to the occasion at the end of the match. We had our opportunities, but one ball here or there can change a game, and we couldn't get that break."
Freshman libero Erik Shoji extended his single-season digs total to 447, which is believed to be a national record. No official records have been kept by the NCAA. Also, Evan Romero led Stanford in kills for the third consecutive year while extending his school record (rally-scoring era) for career kills to 1,295, and Kawika Shoji extended his school-record (rally-scoring era) for single-season assists, to 1,394.
In addition, Stanford took another large step toward returning to national prominence. The Cardinal was 3-25 only two seasons ago, and jumped to 17-11 last season. This year's 21 victories were the most for the program since 1997.
Stanford will lose four seniors - middle Cameron Christoffers, setter Miki Groppi, libero Jarod Keller, and middle Brandon Williams (nine kills Saturday). Next season, the team will belong to outside hitters Ed Howell and Jason Palacios, opposite Evan Romero, setter Kawika Shoji, and middle Garrett Werner.
"We had a good season," Kosty said. "I thanked our seniors for putting in four hard years of work to get the program where it is today. Now, it's up to the juniors to take it to the next level."
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