April 3, 2013
STOCKTON, Calif. - A second consecutive double-double from Steven Irvinhelped Stanford sweep Pacific, 25-22, 25-21, 25-17 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men's volleyball on Tuesday and snap a four-match losing streak.
The Cardinal (13-10 overall, 10-10 MPSF) got 11 kills and 12 digs from Irvin, 13 kills from Brian Cook, and 10 from Daniel Tublin to complete a season sweep of the two-match series against Pacific (7-17, 4-16), the only other NCAA Division I program in Northern California.
Stanford beat the Tigers for the 11th consecutive time and did so with a stout .313 hitting percentage. The Cardinal improved its road record to 4-7 and maintained its spot among the top conference's top eight with four matches remaining in the regular season.
The Cardinal is now in a three-way tie for sixth in the 13-team. The top eight advance to the MPSF tournament to play for the conference's lone automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
"It was a great team win tonight," Stanford coach John Kosty said. "We played consistent and solid volleyball all the way through."
Irvin, who also was in double-digits in kills and digs against Long Beach State on Saturday, helped the Cardinal end its longest losing streak since 2007.
Tublin also provided a strong performance with one of the top offensive performances of his career. And James Shaw had 42 assists while keeping everyone involved in the attack.
Stanford next plays at UC Irvine on Friday and UC San Diego on Saturday before completing the regular season at Maples Pavilion with matches against Cal Baptist and BYU on April 12-13.