Feb. 2, 2011
STANFORD, Calif. - The San Francisco Giants have already filed this away under "World Series champions," but the Stanford men's volleyball team could well adopt the same description for the ordeal its fans seem to go through each game: Torture.
On Wednesday, the No. 4 Cardinal outlasted Pacific, 25-20, 25-12, 22-25, 25-22, behind Brad Lawson's season-high 23 kills in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action at Burnham Pavilion. But Stanford continued to find a way to put its fans through the ringer.
This is a Stanford team that has rallied from fifth-set deficits twice to win and then, unpredictably, fell easily to Long Beach State last week.
Stanford was in control of the match with two sets in hand and ahead 22-19 in the third before the No. 15 Tigers rallied for six consecutive points to win the set. The torture continued in the fourth, when Stanford trailed 18-16 and seemed in danger of being dragged into a pressure-packed fifth set.
But, this time, the Cardinal went on a run, outscoring Pacific 7-2 to bolt to a 23-20 lead. Again, Pacific rallied, this time closing the gap to 23-22. But kills from Spencer McLachlin and Brian Cook, the latter off a nifty back set from Evan Barry, finished off the match.
"It all about serving and passing is men's volleyball," Stanford coach John Kosty said. "We served and passed tonight better than we did against Long Beach. The other thing was getting our entire offense in gear. We need to run a balanced offense and tonight we ran a pretty balanced offense. I was happy with that."
Stanford (6-2 overall, 5-2 in the MPSF) was coming off a dreadful performance at Long Beach State on Saturday in which the Cardinal hit only .021 as a team. This time, Stanford hit a robust .363, including .614 through the first two sets.
Lawson hit .929 with 13 kills in 14 attacks during that time and finished with a .487 hitting percentage with five blocks and four digs. Cook, the freshman from Santa Cruz, matched teammate Spencer McLachlin with 11 kills, but also hit .474, with five blocks and five digs.
The offensive success fell into place largely because of the play of Barry, who produced a career-best 50 assists for a four-set match.
"Evan set a great match tonight," Kosty said. "That was probably one of the biggest improvements we've had, in seeing Evan's improvement from one weekend to the next. That's my expectation of him, to keep getting better. It's his first time in the MPSF, starting and running a team, and he's learning. Tonight, he showed he's going to be a very good setter in this league."
A stressful week that includes midterms gets even more stressful when the team wakes early Thursday for a morning flight to weather-beaten Chicago for matches Friday and Saturday at Lewis and Loyola, respectively. The Midwest has been socked in by snowstorms and cold temperatures. Stanford should expect to be greeted by a high temperature of 12 degrees, with a wind chill as low as minus-15.
The atmosphere in the gyms should be just as intimidating. Lewis' bandbox holds 1,100 and it is expected to be packed for a match against the defending national champions. Loyola should be similar. The Ramblers are on a 21-match winning streak at Alumni Gym.
"When I scheduled it over the summer, I knew Lewis and Loyola were going to be good teams in very hostile environments," Kosty said. "I didn't schedule the storm, but everything else I did schedule for. They're great opponents and we're really looking forward to going out there and competing at a high level and with a lot of intensity."
The matches will conclude a seven-match, seven-city stretch over 16 days in which the Cardinal will have traveled 9,227 miles, from Hawaii to Illinois.
-- David Kiefer, Stanford Athletics