Jan. 28, 2010
STANFORD, Calif. - No. 2 Stanford, days after moving into its highest men's volleyball ranking since 2002, was upset by No. 10 UC Santa Barbara, 30-28, 31-29, 28-30, 31-29, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at Burnham Pavilion on Thursday night.
Evan Romero had a match-high 26 kills and Brad Lawson had 22 and four service aces as Stanford hit a strong .384 as a team. But UCSB (3-5, 3-2) hit .336 despite 10 Stanford blocks and got 23 kills from Jeff Menzel and 22 from Cullen Irons to earn a big road victory.
Though UCSB controlled the first set and rallied from a 19-14 deficit in the second, Stanford appeared to even it up at 1-1 when Romero and Gus Ellis appeared to score on a set-point block, with the ball deflecting down off a UCSB player.
But the linesman determined that the Stanford block deflected off the antenna first and, after a conference of officials, the point was awarded to the Gauchos.
Postmatch video seemed to support Stanford's contention that the ball deflected straight down, off the head of a UCSB player, and not near the antenna.
UCSB then reeled off three consecutive points to win the set and pull ahead, 2-0.
"We had a big momentum switch at the end of Game 2," Stanford coach John Kosty said. "From beginning to walk off the court thinking we won, to having to go back on the court and sideout ... that was a tough spot for us emotionally, to being down 0-2 instead of tied 1-1."
The match seemed a grind from the start for Stanford, which was unable to string together runs. The Cardinal did well to catch the Gauchos at times, but could never break them.
"Santa Barbara played well and made the plays at the end of games to win the sets and the match," Kosty said. "We made plays to get us to tie it up or up by one, but they were the ones who made the plays that counted in the end."
Stanford had a chance to pull even at 2-2 by rallying from a 24-18 deficit to tie the Game 4 at 28-28. However, a Stanford service error at 29-29 put UCSB in front and local product Jake Rosener, out of Homestead High in Cupertino, fired an ace to win the match for the Gauchos.
Stanford played without starting outside hitter Spencer McLachlin, who injured his shoulder against BYU on Saturday. He was replaced in the lineup by redshirt sophomore Garrett Dobbs, and then by Jason Palacios.
Sophomore All-American libero Erik Shoji had a season-high 16 digs, and brother Kawika Shoji had 57 assists.
Stanford faces an apparently tougher task Friday when it plays host to No. 3 Cal State Northridge (6-1, 3-1) at Maples Pavilion at 7 p.m.
"We'll have a different test tomorrow," Kosty said.