Jan. 14, 2011
STANFORD, Calif. - To the 1,017 spectators at Maples Pavilion on Friday night, the Stanford men's volleyball team grew up in front of their eyes.
For a team striving to establish itself on own merits and rise out of the shadow of its 2010 NCAA championship, the 2011 Cardinal did so indeed during a 25-21, 17-25, 25-23, 19-25, 17-15 epic over No. 2 BYU.
With two freshmen on the floor, a new setter and three new starters, there were reasons to doubt when the Cardinal trailed 14-12 in the final set. But with Brad Lawson demanding the ball and pounding four consecutive Stanford kills, the Cardinal pulled even, at 14-14.
In all, Stanford (2-0 overall, 1-0 in the MPSF) would fight off three match points before prevailing on a block by senior Spencer McLachlin and freshman Eric Mochalski that sent the Cardinal and its crowd into a frenzy.
"We found out that we're resilient," Stanford coach John Kosty said. "We have heart, and we have trust in each other. Those are the things that helped us win tonight."
Since the opening of practice, Kosty has stressed the need to forget 2010 and establish a new identity. But what Stanford established Friday was an identity that looks a lot like the old one.
"It is a new team," said Lawson, who had a match-high 20 kills. "We talk about it every day. It's a new team that we're building. We're making some uncharacteristic errors, but I'm really proud of the effort tonight and the character that we had, especially late in that fifth game."
Yes, Stanford had flaws, plenty of them, as it attempted to fend off the exquisite passing and power hitting of a team that looked like monsters compared to the relatively slight frames of the Cardinal players.
Stanford committed 21 serving errors, was at times out of position defensively, and sometimes off kilter offensively.
The match evolved from borderline hopeless, as the Cardinal struggled to gain any kind of foothold in the fourth set, to euphoric. The team found a familiar rhythm on the swings of Lawson.
"It was Brad," Kosty said. "Brad made some key sideouts late in the fifth game."
"Yeah, I started to demand sets a little more," Lawson said. "But credit to the rest of the guys. I mean, we run a really well-balanced offense, even more than last year.
"There are times where I have to step up and say, `Evan Barry, I need the ball right now.' But I still give credit to the other attackers for opening up the opportunities for me."
McLachlin had 15 kills and only two errors, for a .419 hitting percentage, and Mochalski had eight kills in his first collegiate start, as well as six blocks. His quick swing startled BYU (3-1, 0-1) at times and his growing confidence was obvious to all.
Brian Cook, another freshman in the starting lineup, was replaced for a long stretch by Garrett Dobbs, but returned to start the fifth set, just after captain Jordan Inafuku gathered the team in a hallway and demanded the Cardinal raise its play.
`This is our time," he told them. "We need to focus. I know we can give more."
Cook, like his teammates, came out swinging, and their persistence was rewarded. For a team trying to find itself, one got the feeling they just did - a new team that has figured out how to win.
-- David Kiefer, Stanford Athletics