Feb. 17, 2012
IRVINE, Calif. - There's no telling how much the first set affected the rest of the match, but in the case of No. 4 Stanford and No. 2 UC Irvine - battling in a match that could have postseason implications - the result seemed to make a great deal of difference.
Trailing by scores of 22-16 and 24-21, Stanford fought off eight set points to propel the Cardinal to a 32-30, 25-15, 25-23 men's volleyball victory on Friday.
Stanford sophomore Eric Mochalski had five blocks down the stretch of that set, but he wasn't the only hero. Brad Lawson had eight kills and no hitting errors in the set.
Brian Cook had a match-high 15 kills for No. 4 Stanford, which improved to 10-2 overall and 7-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Lawson and Steven Irvin contributed 12 kills each as Stanford recorded its sixth consecutive victory - all on the road against ranked teams.
Pending UCLA's result at Hawai'i late Friday night, Stanford pulled into a tie for first with the Bruins and earned a vital advantage over UCI (9-3, 5-3). Stanford needs only to win one set in their next meeting to earn the tiebreaker edge between the two for MPSF tournament seeding. It also could factor in to determining the single NCAA at-large berth, if it comes to that.
Ahead by six, a pair of kills by Lawson and three blocks from Mochalski enabled Stanford to cut the deficit with a 5-0 run. UCI appeared to regain control at 24-21, but Mochalski was in on two more blocks to help Stanford pull into a 25-25 tie.
The set went back and forth before a service ace by Gus Ellis put Stanford ahead 30-29 and Irvin eventually finished it off with a kill.
The momentum seemed to carry over into the second set. With Stanford ahead 11-10, Mochalski served six consecutive points to help the Caradinal build a 17-10 lead.
Erik Shoji had 15 digs for Stanford and Evan Barry had 37 assists while setting Stanford to a .463 hitting percentage.
Stanford earned its sixth consecutive victory over the Anteaters and will close out a 10-match road stretch Saturday night at UC San Diego (3-10, 1-7).
Stanford has a 7-2 record on a 40-day road stretch that has been exemplary considering the competition has included then-No. 1 BYU (two victories), current No. 1 UCLA (a loss), No. 2 UCI (a victory), defending national champion Ohio State (a victory), and eight teams currently ranked in the AVCA Top 15.
For Stanford to be successful on the road would seem to bode well for the Cardinal. After all, Stanford plays 11 of its final 13 MPSF matches at home.