THIS WEEK: The No. 14 Stanford men’s volleyball team (10-16, 7-13 MPSF) wraps-up the regular season with home matches against No. 12 UCLA (12-13, 8-13 MPSF) on Friday, April 17 at 7 p.m. and No. 9 UC Santa Barbara (15-9, 11-9 MPSF) on Saturday, April 18 at 5:30 p.m. on Senior Night.
CATCH THE CARDINAL: Live stats for the matches can be found on the men’s volleyball schedule page on GoStanford.com. Friday’s match against UCLA will be televised on Pac-12 Bay Area and Los Angeles, while Saturday’s match versus UC Santa Barbara will be on all seven networks. Kevin Barnett (play-by-play) and Kevin Wong (analyst) will be on the call.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Fans will have access to unique behind-the-scenes content on the team this season by liking Stanford Men’s Volleyball on Facebook or following the team on Twitter (@StanfordMVB) and Instagram (@therealstanfordmvb).
SCOUTING UCLA: UCLA enters the week half a match ahead of the Cardinal in the MPSF standings at 8-13, having played one additional match. The Bruins lead the MPSF in service aces (1.52) and rank fourth in blocks (2.54). UCLA is led by freshman outside hitter J.T. Hatch’s 2.76 kills and 1.63 digs per set. Redshirt junior middle blocker Trent Kersten ranks 10th in the MPSF in blocks (1.12) and 11th in hitting percentage (.368). Sophomore middle blocker Mitch Stahl adds 1.48 kills on a .367 attack percentage (11th) and posts 0.40 aces (6th) and 0.96 blocks (15th) per set.
SCOUTING UC SANTA BARBARA: UC Santa Barbara comes into the final weekend in sixth place in the MPSF standing, and has already clinched a postseason berth. A veteran squad, the Gauchos are second in the MPSF in opponent hitting percentage (.203) and digs per set (10.06). Redshirt senior outside hitter Kevin Donohue leads the team and ranks third in the MPSF with 3.68 kills per set and is fifth with 4.12 points per set. Redshirt senior middle blocker Jake Staahl is third in the MPSF with a .420 attack percentage and seventh with 1.17 blocks per set, while redshirt junior middle blocker Ryan Hardy is 13th in the conference with a .364 hitting percentage and ninth with 1.16 blocks per set.
LAST TIME OUT: Stanford dropped two matches last week at No. 1 Hawai’i. Junior Madison Hayden led the team with 3.67 kills per set, while redshirt sophomore Gabriel Vega added 3.50 kills and 2.00 digs per set. The Cardinal was held to a season-low .033 hitting percentage on Saturday.
IN THE POLL: Despite being swept twice at Hawai’i last week, Stanford moved up to No. 14 in the top-15 in the AVCA Division I-II Men’s Coaches Poll this week. The Cardinal is one of 10 MPSF squads ranked in the top 15.
FINDING THE RIGHT FIT: After losing five seniors to graduation, including All-Americans Brian Cook, Steven Irvin and opposite Eric Mochalski, the Cardinal is looking to replace 72 percent of its offense from 2014. Looking for consistency on the court, Stanford has used 17 different starting line-ups in 26 matches this season.
NATIONAL STATISTICS: Junior middle blocker Conrad Kaminski ranks seventh in the nation with a .391 attack percentage, which is sixth in the MPSF. As a team, Stanford is 12th in the nation with 1.40 aces per set, 16th with 9.19 digs, 17th with 11.88 kills and 20th with 11.13 assists per set.
THE ROAD TO STANFORD: The road to the 2015 NCAA title runs through Stanford, Calif., this season. The Cardinal will be the host site of the championship, held May 7&9 in Maples Pavilion. Stanford will also host both play-in matches on May 5. Tickets are on-sale now for the championship at gostanford.com/tickets.
HEAD COACH JOHN KOSTY: Stanford head coach John Kosty is in his ninth season at the helm of the Cardinal program and his 25th overall on staff. He is 155-107 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 each of the past seven seasons under Kosty.