| LINESCORE | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F | |
| No. 5 Long Beach State (21-6, 15-5 MPSF) | 23 | 25 | 27 | 19 | 1 |
| No. 4 Stanford (19-3, 17-3 MPSF) | 25 | 22 | 29 | 25 | 3 |
| STAT COMPARISON | ||
|---|---|---|
| LBSU | STAN | |
| Kills | 64 | 58 |
| Attack pct. | .321 | .391 |
| Assists | 61 | 56 |
| Aces | 1 | 6 |
| Digs | 32 | 33 |
| Blocks | 10.5 | 14.0 |
STANFORD, Calif. – The No. 4 Stanford men’s volleyball team came back from a 24-22 deficit in the third set to win 29-27 on its way to a 3-1 win over No. 5 Long Beach State, Saturday, in front of more than 1,500 fans at Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal won for the 12th time in its last 13 outings.
Stanford’s seniors shined in their final regular season home match at Maples Pavilion. Outside hitter Madison Hayden led the team with 15 kills on .324 hitting, two digs and a career high four assists, while middle blocker Conrad Kaminski hit .526 with 12 kills and five blocks.
Senior setter James Shaw guided the offense to a .391 attack percentage for the match. The Woodside, California native finished with 48 assists, seven digs, six kills, four blocks and three aces.
Stanford (19-3, 17-3 MPSF) won the opening set 25-23, keeping its streak of first-set wins alive (the Cardinal has won the opening set in all 22 matches this season). After dropping the second, 25-22, Stanford found itself down by as many as four in the third set to the 49ers (21-6, 15-5 MPSF).
Trailing 24-22 in the pivotal third set, an attack error by Long Beach and a kill by Hayden gave the Cardinal life again. The teams traded points until a service error by 49er setter Josh Tuaniga gave Stanford a 28-27 edge. Redshirt sophomores Kevin Rakestraw and Clay Jones then teamed up for a block to seal the set win for Stanford. The Cardinal went on to win the fourth, 25-19, hitting .720 (18-0-25) with a sideout rate of 89 percent.
Not to be outshined by the seniors, rookie Jordan Ewert matched his career-high with 11 kills on a career-best .429 attack percentage to go with five digs and two blocks. Rakestraw added six kills and a career-high eight blocks, while Jones added a defensive spark off the bench in the third and fourth sets as he racked up six digs and two blocks. Sophomore libero Evan Enriques finished with nine digs.
Long Beach State was led by freshman TJ DeFalco’s 20 kills, seven digs and four blocks. Kyle Ensing added 16 kills and six digs, while Tuaniga finished with a match-high 52 assists.
The win keeps Stanford atop the MPSF standings along with BYU (21-3, 17-3 MPSF). The Cardinal, which will host an MPSF quarterfinal match on April 16, holds the tiebreaker over BYU.
Stanford concludes MPSF play next week on the road at No. 1 UCLA on Thursday, April 7 and at No. 7 UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, April 9. Thursday’s match will be televised live on Pac-12 Bay Area and Pac-12 Los Angeles at 5 p.m. PT.