Feb. 25, 2012
STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford experienced a different side of life in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. After winning eight straight to claw to the top of the standings and the national rankings, the Cardinal will need to claw some more after a five-set loss to USC on Saturday.
Brad Lawson had 24 kills, but couldn't prevent No. 1 Stanford from losing to the No. 6 Trojans, 21-25, 25-18, 25-27, 25-16, 15-13, before a season-high crowd of 1,481 at Maples Pavilion.
"You never want to do it in a loss, but this is an opportunity for us to get better," Stanford coach John Kosty said. "We've got to keep improving."
Stanford (12-3, 9-2) struggled to slow Tony Ciarelli, the two-time All-America who had 28 kills and seemingly every big point. USC (9-4, 7-4) simply controlled the net, outblocking Stanford 15.5-6.0.
"Our passing broke down a little bit, which allowed them to gang up on our outsides," Kosty said.
Still, Stanford was in position to win. The Cardinal had leads of 11-9 and 12-11 in the fifth set before Ciarelli produced two of USC's final five points, including the winner.
"They did a very good job of staying steady and we were the team that waved up and down," Kosty said. "That's one of the things that hurt us tonight. Credit to them, Tony Ciarelli had a great match. He did everything he needed to do for them to win."
Stanford, which fell behind first-place UCLA (9-1) in the MPSF standings, got 15 kills and 14 digs from Brian Cook and 11 kills from Steven Irvin. But the Cardinal was held to a .264 hitting percentage - hitting .115 in the second set and .040 in the fourth - while USC hit a healthy .389.
Stanford next plays host host to UC San Diego on Friday and No. 4 UC Irvine, with All-America hitter Carson Clark, on Saturday. Both are 7 p.m. matches at Maples Pavilion.
-- David Kiefer, Stanford Athletics