April 8, 2008
Stanford, Calif. - Stanford Volleyball This Week:
Fri, Apr. 11 vs. No. 6 UCLA, 7 p.m., Maples Pavilion
Sat, Apr. 12 vs. No. 8 UC Irvine, 7 p.m., Burnham Pavilion
Stanford men's volleyball continues their homestand with two home games that will have a large effect on postseason seeding. The Cardinal will take on the UCLA Bruins, who are fourth in the conference with an 11-9 record, just one game ahead of Stanford. The Cardinal will then take on the UC Irvine Anteaters, who are tied for sixth with Stanford with a 10-10 conference record. With so many teams close in the conference standings, the Cardinal have a chance to finish anywhere from fourth to eighth in conference.
Last weekend the Cardinal played host to UC San Diego and Long Beach State and split the weekend. Stanford defeated UC San Diego (30-20,35-33,30-20) , but dropped a three-game match (30-24,30-25,30-17) to first place Long Beach State on Saturday. This leaves Stanford with a 10-10 mark in conference play. The Cardinal is in a three-way tie for sixth place with UC Irvine and USC.
Important Stretch:
Currently Stanford is in sixth place with a 10-10 record and is currently in a three-way tie for sixth place. UCLA and Pepperdine are in a two-way tie for fourth place with 11-9 marks in conference. The two games this weekend will have a huge impact on the potential playoff seeding.
If the Season Ended Today...: .....The Cardinal would be in the sixth spot due to tiebreakers and would travel to third seed CS Northridge. USC and UC Irvine would be the eighth and seventh seeds respectively and would play each other in the Play-In Game. The winner of the Play-In game would head to second seeded BYU. Fifth seed Pepperdine and fourth seed UCLA would also play, and the winner of the match would head to top seed Long Beach State, who earns a bye to the semifinals.
Stanford Falls to 8th in CSTV/AVCA Poll: The Cardinal fell to No. 11 in the CSTV/AVCA poll after occupying the eighth spot in the previous poll. The team earned 96 points, to maintain a 21-point lead over 12th ranked George Mason. Penn State (24-1) remained in the top spot after earning all 16 first-place votes, while BYU (21-4) moved up to the second spot. CS Northridge (21-5), Long Beach State (21-5) and Pepperdine (12-9) rounded out the top five.
Season Leaders:
The Cardinal is coming up on the end of the season and have some usual faces on their leaderboard. For the second straight year Stanford is led by Romero, with 390 kills, and senior Matt Ceran is second with 269 kills and is third on the team in digs with 157. Sophomore Kawika Shoji is leading the team with 871 assists, and junior Brandon Williams is leading the team in blocks with 55.
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.
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.
Scouting the Bruins:
Al Scates leads the Bruins and is in his 46th season. He came into this season with a 1154-223 (.838) record and comes into tonight's match with a 16-12 overall record and are currently in 4th place in the MPSF conference. The Bruins are led this season by sophomore Garrett Muagututia, who has recorded 429 kills on the season. Junior Sean O'Malley is second on the team with 306 kills. The starting setter for the Bruins is junior Matt Wade, who comes into the match with 959 assists on the season.
Up Next: After this weekend the Cardinal have a variety of options for their postseason fate next weekend. They could finish anywhere from fourth to eighth on conference, when postseason seeding is final, the pairings will be announced on www.gostanford.com.