April 21, 2012
STANFORD, Calif. - Senior outside hitter Brad Lawson had 22 kills on a record-breaking night to lead the No. 3 Stanford men's volleyball team to a 25-23, 25-17, 23-25, 25-17 victory over No. 9 Pepperdine in the first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament before 1,072 at Maples Pavilion on Saturday night.
Stanford (21-7) advances to the semifinals at USC's Galen Center where the Cardinal will play No. 4 BYU on Thursday at 5 p.m. No. 1 USC plays No. 2 UC Irvine in the other semifinal, at 7:30. The winners play Saturday for the conference's automatic bid into the four-team NCAA tournament, also to be played at the Galen Center, May 3-5.
Playing in his final home match, Lawson broke the Stanford rally-scoring era record for career kills. His 16th kill, a drive down the line on the left side, broke the mark of 1,781 held by Evan Romero (2007-10). Lawson now has 1,788.
Lawson, who likely will receive his third first-team All-America honor this season, was stifled early on, but got into a rhythm late in the second set and went on to hit a scorching .514 against the Waves (14-15).
The Honolulu native was among four Stanford players with double-figure kills, along with sophomores Brian Cook (12), Steven Irvin (12), and Eric Mochalski (10).