Complete Release
THIS WEEK: Stanford (0-3) travels to two-time defending national champion and top-ranked Ohio State (1-0) on Friday and No. 14 Ball State (2-0) on Saturday.
CATCH THE CARDINAL: Live stats for the matches can be found on the men's volleyball schedule page on GoStanford.com. Friday's match will be streamed live on Buckeye Vision, while Saturday's contest will air on ESPN3.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Fans had access to unique behind-the-scenes content on the team by liking Stanford Men's Volleyball on Facebook or following the team on Twitter (@StanfordMVB) and Instagram (@therealstanfordmvb).
ABOUT OHIO STATE: No. 1 Ohio State, the two-time defending national champion, opened the 2018 season with a sweep over North Greenville. The Buckeyes are 544-103 at home in St. John Arena (51st season). Senior Nicolas Szerszen was tabbed the MIVA Preseason Player of the Year and was joined on the Preseason All-MIVA team by Maxime Hervoir and Blake Leeson. Dating back to 1982, Stanford is 9-3 all-time against Ohio State. The Buckeyes won the first-ever meeting before the Cardinal reeled off nine straight wins in the series. Last season, Ohio State swept the Cardinal in back-to-back matches on The Farm.
ABOUT BALL STATE: The Cardinals swept Lees-McRae and Emmanuel College at home last week to kick off the 2018 season. Ball State hit .475 in the two matches and held its opponents to a combined .100 clip. Setter Courtland Scharenbor controlled the offense with 10.67 assists per set. Ben Chinnici earned MIVA Offensive Player of the Week honor as he is second in kills per set (4.67) and third in hitting percentage (.533). Stanford leads the all-time series with Ball State, 7-1.
IN THE POLL: Stanford entered the 2018 campaign ranked No. 8 in the preseason AVCA Division I-II Men's Coaches Poll. After starting 0-3, Stanford dropped out of the poll for the first time since March 2, 2015. Five MPSF squads are ranked in the top 15.
LAST TIME OUT: The Cardinal opened the season at the UCSB Asics Classic and fell to Saint Francis (3-1), Princeton (3-2) and UC Santa Barbara (3-2). Stanford hit .218 as a team in the three matches, but posted just 1.12 blocks per set. The Cardinal was playing without starting setter Paul Bischoff, who was out due to injury. Freshman opposite Jaylen Jasper led the team with 2.83 kills per set, while senior libero Evan Enriques anchored the defense with 2.92 digs per set.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING: After the opening weekend of play, Stanford ranks fifth as a team nationally with 9.33 digs per set. The Cardinal also ranked in the top 15 in the country with 1.25 aces per set. Individually, senior Evan Enriques is fourth in the nation with 2.92 digs per set.
ALL IN THE FAMILY: Senior libero Evan Enriques is one of four in his immediate family to currently be playing collegiate men's volleyball. His younger brother, Emmett, is a junior libero at CSUN, while twins Addison and Avery are freshmen at Concordia and Grand Canyon, respectively.
COACHES POLL: Stanford, along with Pepperdine, was picked to finish third in the MPSF by the league's coaches. BYU, which received four first-place votes, was picked to win the MPSF for the third straight season, while UCLA collected two first-place votes and came in second.
NEW-LOOK MPSF: Each MPSF team will play 12 conference matches this season, featuring a home and away against each opponent. The 2018 MPSF Tournament begins with seed two, three and four hosting a quarterfinal match on April 14. The conference semifinals will be played on April 19 at the No. 1 seed. Semifinal winners will meet on April 21 for the championship with an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament on the line.
NEWCOMERS: Freshmen JP Reilly (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Leo Henken (Webster Grove, Mo.) were named AVCA First and Second Team High School All-Americans, respectively. Jaylen Jasper (Annapolis, Md.), whose high school did not offer boys' volleyball, was the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2017, as voted on for VolleyballMag.com, while Kyler Presho (San Clemente, Calif.) rounds out the Cardinal's freshman class.
OFF THE BLOCK PRESEASON RECOGNITION: Stanford was one of three teams to land two players on the Off The Block/Springbak Preseason All-America teams. Senior Evan Enriques, who was the first winner of the Erik Shoji Award (2016), given to the nation's top libero by Off The Block and a finalist for the award in 2017, was named to the first team. Fifth-year senior Kevin Rakestraw landed on the second team. Additionally, outside hitter Jordan Ewert received votes, which were collected from coaches around the nation.
2017 RECAP: Stanford finished the 2017 campaign 13-13 overall and 8-10 in the MPSF. After being picked to finish seventh by the MPSF coaches, Stanford tied for sixth and secured its ninth postseason appearance under head coach John Kosty. The Cardinal produced four all-conference selections and two AVCA All-Americans.
HEAD COACH JOHN KOSTY: Stanford head coach John Kosty is in his 12th season at the helm of the Cardinal program and his 28th overall on staff. He is 187-131 in his career and has guided Stanford to the 2010 NCAA national championship and the 2014 NCAA finals. The Cardinal has produced a first team AVCA All-America selection in eight of the past 10 seasons under Kosty. Stanford has appeared in the MPSF Tournament in nine of Kosty's 11 seasons (missing out in 2007 and 2015).