IRVINE, Calif. – Playing its third straight top-5 opponent, Stanford fell in straight sets (25-12, 26-24, 25-19) at No. 4 UC Irvine, Friday, at the Bren Events Center.
Stanford (1-8) was held to a .084 attack percentage, while UC Irvine (10-1) posted a .403 clip. The Anteaters tallied 14.0 blocks as a team and had a 71 percent side out rate.
Trying to mix things up, the Cardinal started Evan Enriques, who had started every match at libero, at outside hitter against UC Irvine. Senior Jake Stuebner filled in for Enriques at libero.
Freshman opposite Jaylen Jasper led Stanford with seven kills on .214 hitting and two digs in two sets played. Sophomore Eli Wopat started the match for the Cardinal at opposite.
Playing on the opposite side of the net as his father, who is an assistant coach for the Anteaters, freshman middle blocker Kyler Presho had six kills on .545 hitting, a block and an ace for the Cardinal.
Junior setter Russell Dervay totaled 18 assists and was a perfect 6-0-6 (1.000) offensively while also collecting five digs and a block. Sophomore Mason Tufuga entered the match in the third to set and finished with three assists and a block.
Sophomore outside hitter Eric Beatty came off the bench and recorded five kills and four digs, but had seven of the team's 23 hitting errors. Starting outside hitters Enriques and freshman Leo Henken both finished without a kill.
UC Irvine was led by Karl Apfelbach's 12 kills on a .421 attack percentage, while three other Anteaters all notched nine kills. Libero David Parker finished with a match-high nine digs.
Stanford will be back in action on Saturday in La Jolla as the Cardinal faces UC San Diego at 7 p.m.