Cardinal Dashed by Pepperdine

Box Score

STANFORD, Calif. – Gabriel Vega bounced a team-high 12 kills but No. 5 Pepperdine hit a smooth .468 to down the host Cardinal, 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-18), Friday evening at Maples Pavilion. Pepperdine received double-digit kills from Parker Kalmbach (19) and Josh Taylor (14) to secure its first win on Stanford’s home court since 2010.

Stanford’s ledger fell to 5-11 overall and 3-8 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action. Pepperdine bumped ahead to 13-2 with a 9-2 league mark.

"I thought we did some good things. Pepperdine is a really tough team for us to match up with right now," said head coach John Kosty. "They are hitting on all cylinders and Marv [Dunphy] has Matt West setting a really nice offense. There are attacking threats from all over the place.

"Tonight, I thought there were some things we did well. I thought as we got to the third game our blocking started to solidify, our passing got better. The season is a process for us and we are working through that process."

Madison Hayden notched nine kills and six digs. Stanford's middle blockers Conrad Kaminski and Spencer Haly finished with five and four kills, respectively. Both players hit over .400.

James Shaw, who dished out 16 assists in the third set when the Cardinal hit a match-high .387, also chipped in five kills. It was his first match back in the rotation since suffering and injury at Concordia on Feb. 7.

"James just got back in the gym," explained Kosty. "We needed to make some changes in that third game to give ourselves an opportunity. We just needed to change some stuff up and putting James back at setter was one of the ways to do that."

The Cardinal finishes the back half of its weekend slate on Saturday against Holy Names. First serve is set for 7 p.m. (PT) in Maples Pavilion.