April 17, 2010
IRVINE, Calif. - Brad Lawson served eight consecutive points in the fifth set, including two aces, to spark a late-match surge that enabled the No. 1 Stanford men's volleyball to outlast UC Irvine on Saturday night and capture its first conference championship since 1997.
Evan Romero seemingly did the rest, with 24 kills and five aces in the Cardinal's 30-21, 27-30, 30-28, 24-30, 15-6 victory that ended a wild final night of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular-season play - a night that began with the possibility of a four-way tie for first.
Next, will be a rematch between No. 1 seed Stanford (19-6, 16-6) and No. 8 UC Irvine (15-14, 10-12) in the first round of the MPSF Tournament on Saturday at Maples Pavilion at 7 p.m.
"This was one of our goals," Stanford coach John Kosty said. "It feels good right now. But we know Irvine is a very talented team. We're going to need to get better."
The day began with BYU in control of the MPSF Tournament's No. 1 seed and a share of first place. But the Cougars lost to visiting Cal State Northridge in five sets, giving Stanford the opportunity to reclaim the outright championship and the No. 1 seed with a victory. A loss would have dropped Stanford into a three-way tie for first and the No. 3 seed.
Kosty knew the result of the BYU match, which started an hour earlier, but withheld it from his team. Stanford's players didn't know they had won the title until after the match when the BYU score was announced over the public address system.
Now, Stanford will never have to leave Maples Pavilion in the postseason. It has ensured homecourt as long as its in the conference tournament, and plays host to the four-team NCAA Tournament on May 6 and 8.
The conference championship also brings Stanford one step closer to an NCAA berth. If Stanford fails to win the MPSF tournament and the conference's only automatic NCAA berth, it will be considered strongly for the sole at-large berth by virtue of its regular-season season.
Winning the outright title in the MPSF, from which the nation's top 10-ranked teams reside, is sure to bring Stanford strong consideration for the NCAA's only at-large berth if the Cardinal fails to win the MPSF Tournament and earn its automatic NCAA berth.
Stanford and UCI were tied in the fifth set, 2-2, before Lawson's serving run boosted the Cardinal into an insurmountable 11-2 lead. The run began with a UCI service error and was fueled by kills from Lawson and Romero. Lawson would complete the match with the last of his 13 kills.
In other quarterfinal matchups, with seeding listed: No. 5 Pepperdine at No. 4 Hawaii, No. 6 USC at No. 3 Cal State Northridge, and No. 7 UCLA at No. 2 BYU.
The semifinals are April 29 and final is May 1.
The competiveness of the MPSF was brought into greater relief on Saturday when Pacific broke a 58-match conference losing streak to beat UCLA, the team that beat Stanford on Friday, on the road. And 11th-place UC San Diego earned a stunning five-set victory over Pepperdine, a team that entered the day with aspirations of a share of the MPSF title.
The challenge for Stanford on Saturday was forgetting about Friday, a five-set loss to the Bruins.
"They're a confident team that knows they need to play well in all facets of the game," Kosty said of the team's pre-match mindset.
It showed.
"The bottom line, is it was a nice weekend, and a nice way to finish the season," Kosty said. "We have seniors that have worked hard four years to get to this point, and there are 19 guys here who are part of it."