March 3, 2012
STANFORD, Calif. - The Stanford men’s volleyball team could chalk its four-set loss to UC Irvine as one of those nights.
But that wouldn’t be right, no matter how much the No. 2 Cardinal struggled in a 25-21, 17-25, 25-17, 25-15 loss to No. 3 UC Irvine on Saturday before 1,096 fans at Maples Pavilion.
“We’ve been a real good team so far,” Stanford coach John Kosty said. “We need to be one of those teams that after a setback, plays even better.”
That test will come quickly when Stanford (14-3 overall, 10-3 conference) plays host to Hawai’i on Tuesday and Wednesday to complete a stretch of four matches in six days.
UCI (14-3, 10-3) pulled into a second-place tie with Stanford in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, behind leading UCLA (11-1). But, by capturing a set, the Cardinal did win the tiebreaker over the Anteaters should the teams finish tied in the standings. Stanford owns a 4-3 edge in sets won during their season series.
The tiebreaker was a positive, as was Brad Lawson’s remarkable performance. Lawson had 21 kills, a .421 hitting percentage and four service aces. The rest of the Cardinal combined to hit .089 with 22 aces.
“Brad brought his full game today,” Kosty said. “He understands what his role is, and his role is to step up to the plate and take swings for us. And that’s what he did tonight, both from the service line and from the net.
“But it’s a team game and we need more than just Brad playing well to beat a team like Irvine.”
Indeed, the Cardinal hit only .017 over the final two sets. However, UCI hit .600 in that span on 50 errorless swings on the way to ending the Cardinal’s six-match winning streak in the series.
Stanford broke out well, bolting to a 10-5 first-set lead upon a combined block by Brian Cook and Gus Ellis. Stanford aimed to limit hitters Carson Clark and Jeremy Dejno and did – holding them to a combined 11 kills and a .086 hitting percentage.
But the Cardinal didn’t count on another option, Kevin Tillie, who rallied the Anteaters to the first-set victory with nine kills and went on to finish with 22, with only two errors, for a .588 percentage.
Stanford’s inability to control the UCI’s serving left the Cardinal scrambling and Lawson was the only one who managed to make something of very little.
“They’re a good serving team,” Kosty said. “We just weren’t a good passing team, and we couldn’t get the ball to the net.”
With Hawai’i approaching quickly, time is vital to regroup and recover, especially because those matches will be the team’s last for three weeks as Stanford heads into Dead Week, finals, and spring break.
“We’ve got to take care of things,” Kosty said. “We’ve got a day off tomorrow to physically rejuvenate. We also need to mentally get back on track.”
The season is far from over – there remain nine matches to go in the regular season. But suddenly the Cardinal is among a pack of four within one game in the loss column. MPSF tournament seeding and possible NCAA at-large credentials will be decided by how the Cardinal handles itself under pressure.
-- David Kiefer, Stanford Athletics