April 5, 2012
STANFORD, Calif. - The No. 5 Stanford men’s volleyball team continues its homestand with weekend matches against No. 8 Long Beach State and No. 12 Cal State Northridge.
Stanford attempts to infiltrate a four-team pack that stands atop the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with four losses apiece. Stanford (16-6 overall, 13-5 MPSF) is right behind with two weekends and four matches remaining in the regular season.
Long Beach (13-12, 8-10) and Northridge (10-15, 6-12) are trying to hold on to or strengthen their positions for the eight-team MPSF tournament.
This Week:
Friday, 7 p.m.: No. 8 Long Beach State (13-12, 8-10) at No. 5 Stanford (16-6, 13-5), at Maples Pavilion.
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Saturday, 7 p.m.: No. 12 Cal State Northridge (10-15, 6-12) at Stanford, at Maples Pavilion.
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Friday’s Opponent, Long Beach State: The 49ers (13-12, 8-10) are tied for sixth place in the MPSF with Pepperdine. In their first meeting with Stanford, on Feb. 10 at the Walker Pyramid, Stanford won 18-25, 25-17, 22-25, 25-20, 15-12. Last year, Long Beach beat Stanford in all three meetings, including the MPSF tournament opener at Maples Pavilion.
Saturday’s Opponent, Cal State Northridge: The Matadors (10-15, 6-12) holds the eighth and final MPSF tournament spot, with UC San Diego (6-13) and Pacific (4-14) close behind. Stanford beat the Matadors at the Matadome on Feb. 11, 25-22, 18-15, 25-22, 25-19, behind Brian Cook’s career-best 26 kills.
No. 100: Stanford’s sixth-year head coach John Kosty earned his 100th victory on Tuesday in a sweep of visiting Pacific. Kosty’s all-time record is 100-68. In conference play, Kosty’s mark is 72-56. The Fountain Valley, Calif., native became one of three Stanford coaches to reach the century mark, joining Ruben Nieves (179-92 from 1991-2001) and former U.S. national team coach Fred Sturm (153-157 from 1979-1990).
The MPSF Race: Stanford is fifth in the MPSF at 13-5 with four conference matches remaining. Stanford trails first-place BYU (16-4) by two games in the standings. In addition, UC Irvine (15-4), UCLA (14-4), and USC (14-4) each have four losses. Stanford has only one match left against any of the top four, and that’s the regular-season finale against UCLA on April 14. If Stanford wins out, the worst-case scenario would be a No. 4 seed.
Here are the remaining matches the top five teams have against each other, in order of current standings:
BYU (two): at UCLA (April 6), at UCLA (April 7)
UC Irvine (one): at USC (April 7)
UCLA (three): vs. BYU (April 6), vs. BYU (April 7), at Stanford (April 14)
USC (one): vs. UC Irvine (April 7)
Stanford (one): vs. UCLA (April 14)
What It Means: Not only are teams vying for top seeds in the eight-team MPSF tournament (April 21-28), which determines the conference’s lone automatic berth to the NCAA tournament, but they are attempting to get an edge on other NCAA at-large contenders. Of the NCAA’s 42 men’s volleyball titles, current MPSF teams have won 36.
Homecourt Advantage: Stanford plays its remaining five matches at home. Stanford and Pacific are the only teams that have as many as four home matches left. Of the contenders, BYU and UCI have zero home matches left and UCLA and USC have two apiece.
No. 1’s: Stanford is among five teams to have held the No. 1 ranking in the AVCA coaches’ poll this season. Stanford was No. 1 for one week (Feb. 20) by both the AVCA and Volleyball Magazine. Stanford played two matches as No. 1 – beating Pepperdine on Feb. 24 and losing to USC on Feb. 25. Other No. 1’s this season have been BYU (which lost twice to Stanford while holding the top ranking), UCLA, UC Irvine, and current No. 1 USC.