Jan. 16, 2000

Stanford, Calif. — The 14th-ranked Stanford men’s volleyball team won its second match of the season with a 15-11, 15-5, 15-11, victory over San Diego State (0-2, 0-2 MPSF) today at Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal (2-0, 2-0 MPSF) were led by freshman middle blocker Curt Toppel’s (Pacific Palisades, CA/Loyola HS) season-high 29 kills.

Toppel, who began the season last Friday with 21 kills versus UC San Diego, opened the match with 12 kills in the first game, before closing out the match with a 14-kill third game performance. For the match, Toppel recorded an impressive .650 (29-40) hitting percentage.

Freshman outside hitter Seth Ring (Bend, OR/Redmond HS) and sophomore outside hitter Marcus Skacel (Laguna Niguel, CA/Santa Margarita HS) each tallied their first double-digit kill performance of the season. Ring had 13 kills while Skacel finished with 10. The outside hitting duo also led Stanford with nine digs apiece.

Junior middle blocker Brett Youngberg (Surrey, B.C./Elgin Park) recorded 11 kills on the day.

For the second consecutive game, junior setter Josh Lukens (San Diego, CA/Mt. Carmel HS) led the Cardinal in assists with 58.

Mike Szymanski’s 20 kills and John Engstrom’s 46 assists paced the Aztecs. San Diego State only hit .242 for the match and a low of .065 in the third game.

Stanford will be back in action on Wednesday, Jan. 19 as they host eighth-ranked BYU at 7 p.m. The Cardinal will close out its four-match home stand against top-ranked UCLA on Saturday, Jan. 22 at Maples Pavilion.