April 15, 2008
Stanford, Calif. -
Stanford Volleyball This Week:
Sat, Apr. 19 vs. #3 seed CS Northridge, 7 p.m., The Matadome
Coming Up:
Stanford men's volleyball enters this postseason this weekend after earning the sixth-seed in the MPSF tournament and earns a trip to Northridge to face third-seed Cal State Northridge. Northridge finished their season with a 23-5 overall record and an 18-4 record within the MPSF competition. In completing their season with a 17-10 record, the Cardinal improved by 14 games on their win total from the 2007 season. They also achieved a .500 or better record within conference for the first time since 2003.
Last Weekend:
Last weekend, the Cardinal wrapped up an impressive wins over UCLA on Friday night (24-30,30-27,30-20,30-28) and a 3-1 win over defending national champion UC Irvine (30-23,28-30,30-23,30-24). With the two wins it kept Stanford from the Play-In Game on Wednesday night and sent the Cardinal straight to the 1st round into their match against CS Northridge. Freshman Spencer McLachlin led the way with 33 kills and 11 digs on the weekend as the Cardinal put together one of their most impressive weekends of the season.
MPSF Playoff Matchups:
With the regular season concluded the MPSF conference tournament begins Wednesday with the Play-In Game being played at UC Irvine. The USC Trojans will visit the Anteaters in the opening The winner of this match will take on BYU, who earned the second seed in the MPSF. Pepperdine will travel to UCLA as they earned the fifth and fourth seeds respectively. Long Beach State gets a bye all the way until the conference semifinals after winning the MPSF regular season.
Impact Freshman:
The Cardinal enjoyed lots of contribution from a stellar freshman class this season. Spencer McLachlin finished third on the team in kills with 235 and also recorded 128 digs on the year. McLachlin finished with 51 blocks as well despite missing seven matches early in the season due to injury. Jordan Inafuku played in 85 games a freshman and led the team with 189 digs. Inafuku played in every match on the season and was the starting libero for most of the season. Charley Henrikson played in 26 games and recorded 39 kills on the season. Ian Connolly played in 51 games and 18 matches and recorded five service aces. Garrett Dobbs played in 12 matches and finished with 15 kills on the season.
Season Leaders:
The Cardinal concluded their regular season and had some usual faces on their leaderboard. For the second straight year Stanford is led by Romero, with 418 kills, and senior Matt Ceran is second with 284 kills and is third on the team in digs with 166. Sophomore Kawika Shoji is leading the team with 968 assists, and junior Brandon Williams is leading the team in blocks with 71.
Romero Named AVCA National Player of the Week and MPSF Co-Player of the Week:
Cardinal sophomore Evan Romero was named AVCA National Player of the Week and MPSF Co-Player of the Week for the week of for February 26-March 3. Romero led the No. 9 Cardinal to a 3-0 week after two defeats of Hawai'i and a win over UC Santa Cruz. In the Wednesday game against Hawai'i, Romero had 29 kills and 9 digs in the 3-2 win. Romero hit .302 in the contest. Romero had a career day though in the Thursday 3-0 win when he recorded 20 kills and hit .692 in the win. In the final game, a 3-0 win over Santa Cruz, Romero added eight kills and played in only two of the games. His week totals were 57 kills and a .421 attack percentage for the weekend.
Romero's Consistency:
Sophomore Evan Romero has had a very consistent season en route to recording 296 kills on the season. Romero is more than two-thirds to his season-total of 384 kills, achieved in his freshman season. Romero recorded 20 kills in the win against Pacific in Stanford's only action. Romero also recorded 27 kills in the two games last week against UC Santa Barbara and CS Northridge. Romero also recorded 21 kills in last weekend's victory over UC San Diego. Romero ranks sixth in the conference with 4.49 kills per game.
McLachlin Providing A Lift:
Freshman Spencer McLachlin missed seven games earlier in the season, but has returned the past two weekends and has provided the Cardinal with a huge lift. McLachlin returned to record 11 saves in the victory against UC Santa Barbara (2/8) and eight kills in the loss to CS Northridge (2/9). McLachlin had his best game since his return against Pacific (2/15) when he recorded 16 kills in the victory to go along with 13 digs and a .314 attack percentage.