March 28, 2010
LONG BEACH, Calif. - The No. 1 Stanford men's volleyball team moved into sole possession of first place in the competitive Mountain Pacific Sports Federation after a 30-28, 30-22, 30-21 sweep of Long Beach State on Saturday night.
Brad Lawson and Evan Romero had 18 kills each for Stanford (15-4, 12-4), which broke a first-place tie with Pepperdine (11-5), a loser to visiting Hawai'i.
"We have a great opportunity," Stanford coach John Kosty said. "But we continually need to play better. And we can."
Stanford, the nation's leader in hitting percentage, continued its torrid pace, hitting .420 while extending its winning streak to eight, the team's longest since 1997-98. In addition, the Cardinal has three consecutive three-set sweeps and has won a season-best 10 consecutive sets.
The victory, in coach John Kosty's eyes, was due to one thing: "Our defense won the match for us tonight. With our block, we created opportunities and transition scoring."
Stanford had only seven blocks, but was imposing enough to hold the No. 9 49ers (12-11, 8-8) to a .183 hitting percentage, including .062 in the second set.
On a night when Stanford's serving game struggled, the Cardinal found other ways to put the opponent on its heels, and that was by controlling its scoring opportunities with the ball on its court.
That was the case in the first set when Stanford trailed 27-26, but got consecutive kills from Romero to put the Cardinal in front. Garrett Werner completed the 4-1 closing run with a sideout kill on set point.
Kawika Shoji had 50 assists for Stanford, and brother Erik Shoji had 15 digs.
The weekend began with five teams within one game of first, but now the race is beginning to break up, with that number down to three (including BYU at 12-6). But one bad weekend could change everything, which Kosty and Stanford are aware of.
As a reminder, on Jan. 28-29, Stanford lost consecutive matches to Cal State Northridge and UC Santa Barbara to fall to 3-3. Next weekend, the Cardinal must face both once again.
Why is the conference race so vital?: First place guarantees the top seed in the MPSF Tournament, which determines the conference's lone automatic NCAA bid. Being the regular season champion also carries considerable weight for the NCAA's only at-large berth, should that team not win the MPSF tournament.
Six matches remain in the regular season for each, including an April 9 duel between the Cardinal and Pepperdine at Maples Pavilion.