Feb. 20, 2010
LOS ANGELES - Sophomore Brad Lawson smashed a team season-high 29 kills to lead No. 2 Stanford to a 30-16, 30-28, 28-30, 30-23 victory over No. 3 USC in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men's volleyball match Saturday at Galen Center.
Stanford (8-4 overall, 7-4 MPSF) finished with a weekend split in matches against Top 5 teams, after being swept at No. 4 Pepperdine on Friday night during a match in which the Cardinal managed only 14 digs. Against USC (8-5, 6-4), the Stanford defense was the difference according to Cardinal coach John Kosty.
"We had more digs tonight (59) than both teams had for last night," Kosty said, after Stanford and Pepperdine combined for 36 on Friday.
One commonality between the matches for Stanford was the efficiency of its attack. The Cardinal hit .346 against the Trojans after a season-high .495 hitting percentage against Pepperdine.
Evan Romero had 17 kills and Spencer McLachlin 14 kills and six blocks against USC, which knocked the Cardinal out in the first round of the 2009 MPSF tournament in their most recent meeting.
Kawika Shoji supplied a team season-high 64 assists and had 16 digs, with brother Erik Shoji supplying 18 digs for Stanford. Lawson had only four errors on 46 attacks and hit .543, and his 29 kills were a collegiate career high. Gus Ellis had nine blocks and fellow middle blocker Garrett Werner had seven kills and seven blocks, as the Cardinal combined for 17 blocks, after only five on Friday. And the Cardinal served five aces, with two from freshman Myles Muagututia.
"We played well," Kosty said. "Tonight, we did what we needed to do to win. We served a little better and our offense continued to click. You want your team to slowly pick up momentum and that's we're doing. It was a good win."
The Cardinal has won five of its past six as the team hits the midpoint of the conference season. The MPSF race is wide open, with the eight of its 12 teams within one of each other in the loss column. At 7-4, Stanford is fifth in the standings, only a half-game behind leaders Pepperdine and BYU (each 7-3).
The Cardinal used a Romero ace and a McLachlin kill to break a 27-27 tie in the second set and gain all the edge it needed while posting 7.5 blocks and three aces in the set. In the decisive fourth set, Stanford broke an 11-11 tie with help of a USC service error and a Lawson kill, and then slowly pulled away while hitting .438 and digging 18 balls.
Stanford returns to action with a Wednesday nonconference match against UC Santa Cruz at Maples Pavilion, at 7 p.m. and plays at Pacific on Friday, also at 7 p.m.