PROVO, Utah – After being up two sets to none, Stanford dropped three straight to No. 6 BYU, Saturday, to fall in five at Smith Fieldhouse.
Stanford (3-13, 1-4 MPSF) jumped out to a 2-0 lead behind hot hitting in the first two frames. The Cardinal posted a .387 clip with 19 kills in the opening set, and followed up with a .350 attack percentage in the second.
The nation's leading blocking team, BYU (12-4, 4-0) tallied 15.0 in the match, while the Cardinal notched just 3.0. The Cougars extended their winning streak to six and are the only undefeated team left in MPSF play.
BYU led 14-8 in the opening set before Stanford rallied behind freshman opposite Jaylen Jasper and sophomore outside hitter Eric Beatty. The teams traded points back-and-forth as there were 10 tie scores in the set. Jasper's seventh kill gave Stanford set-point and fifth-year senior Kevin Rakestraw sealed the win with a kill of his own.
Stanford was up 19-9 in the second and let the Cougars cut the lead to three at 23-20. BYU pulled opposite Gabi Garcia Fernandez late in the second set after a slow start. Tanner Skabelund replaced him and registered three straight aces to get the Cougars back in the set. However, a service error by BYU senior Brendan Sander and an ace by Jasper gave the Cardinal the 2-0 advantage in the match.
BYU stormed back out of the break and caught the Cardinal on its heels in the third set. The Cougars hit .400, while holding Stanford to a -.074 clip. BYU also jumped out to an early lead in the fourth and kept the Cardinal at bay after being tied at 17.
BYU completed the comeback without trailing in the final set. The Cougars' Storm Fa'agata-Tufuga, the cousin of Stanford sophomore Mason Tufuga, finished with a career-high 16 kills off the bench.
Jasper led Stanford with 18 kills and 12 digs for his second career double-double. Beatty added 14 kills and four digs, while Rakestraw had seven kills on .385 hitting.
Junior setter Russell Dervay recorded his first career double-double with 44 assists and 10 digs. Senior libero Evan Enriques collected double-digit digs for the second straight match, totaling 11.
Freshman middle blocker Kyler Presho had eight kills and two blocks for the Cardinal. Rookie JP Reilly, who started his fifth match of the season at outside hitter, tallied six kills, two digs and two aces.
Stanford returns to The Farm for a month, playing seven matches at home in March. First up, the Cardinal will take on No. 2 UCLA on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Maples Pavilion.
