Jan. 14, 2000

Stanford, CA — Behind the stellar performance of freshman middle blocker Curt Toppel (Malibu, CA/Malibu HS) the 14th-ranked Stanford men’s volleyball team defeated UC San Diego, 15-3, 15-10, 15-3, in the Cardinal’s season-opening match at Maples Pavilion today.

Appearing in his first official collegiate match, Toppel recorded a game-high 21 kills and tied for the team-lead in digs with 7. Toppel compiled eight of his 21 kills in the second game and finished the match with a solid .471 hitting-percentage.

Junior middle blocker Brett Youngberg (Surrey, Canada/Elgin Park) followed Toppel with 12 kills despite only playing two games. Junior setter Josh Lukens (San Diego, CA/Mt. Carmel HS) amassed a game-high 42 assists for the Cardinal, moving himself over the 2,000 assist milestone for his career. Lukens also had seven digs and two aces.

The Tritons, who compiled a hitting-percentage of .117 for the match, were led by Donald Chen’s 14 kills and Jordan Hove’s 30 assists.

Stanford improves to 1-0 overall and 1-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, while UC San Diego drops to 0-2 overall and 0-2 in the MPSF.

The Cardinal will take on San Diego State on Sunday, Jan. 16 at Maples Pavilion beginning at 3 p.m.