Jan. 17, 2008

Upcoming Matches:
Friday, Jan. 18 vs. USC, 7 p.m. Maples Pavilion
Saturday, Jan. 19 vs. Pepperdine, 7 p.m. Burnham Pavilion

Stanford Men's Volleyball will try to continue its hot start when they welcome No. 11 USC and No. 3 Pepperdine to the farm this weekend. The Cardinal defeated UC Santa Cruz 3-0 on Tuesday to earn their second match win in a row.

On Friday, Jan. 18 the sixth ranked Cardinal (4-1, 1-1 MPSF) will face USC (3-3, 2-1 MPSF) and on Saturday, Jan. 19 will face one of the preseason favorites, Pepperdine (2-0, 2-0 MPSF). These will be the first two home MPSF conference games for the Cardinal.

The Cardinal is coming off another strong performance last weekend in which they lost to UCLA to open the weekend, but defeated UC Irvine and UC Santa Cruz, improving to 4-1 on the season. The Cardinal began last week by dropping a tough 3-1 decision to UCLA, but rallied to defeat UC Irvine (30-28, 23-30, 30-28, 30-28) for the second time in eight days, rising to sixth place in the national rankings. Sophomore Evan Romero led the way down south with 35 kills in the two games and senior Matt Ceran chipped in 29 of his own. Sophomore Kawika Shoji recorded 101 assists on the weekend to continue his strong sophomore campaign.

Stanford made its Burnham Pavilion debut on Tuesday when it defeated UC Santa Cruz 3-0 (30-18, 30-23, 34-32) to win its second match in a row. Junior Miki Groppi led the Cardinal with 30 assists in the match and sophomore Evan Romero led Stanford with eight kills.

A Team Effort:
16 Cardinal players made an appearance in the home opener against UC Santa Cruz, a season-high. Eleven players also recorded two or more kills in the victory, and four made more than five kills.

Henrikson Makes An Impact:
Freshman Charley Henrikson made an impact last week, providing the Cardinal with 20 kills in the three games. Henrikson recorded eight kills in the loss against UCLA and followed up that performance with five kills against UC Irvine and seven kills against UC Santa Cruz. Henrikson also only made two attack errors, giving him a hitting percentage of .643.

Werner Almost Perfect:
Sophomore Garrett Werner almost had a perfect performance in the three games last week; recording 11 kills on 13 attacks and not committing an attack error. Werner recorded one kill in the loss to UCLA, while recording five and six kills against UC Irvine and UC Santa Cruz, respectively. Werner hit .847 for the week.

About the Trojans:
Head Coach Bill Ferguson enters his second season at the helm for USC, with a career record of 15-18 (.445). USC comes into the weekend with freshman Murphy Troy leading the way with 87 kills on the season and 4.35 per game. Senior Juan Figueroa also is leading for the Trojans with 68 kills and 3.40 per game. Senior Jimmy Killian is the table setter for USC, leading the team with 253 assists.

About the Waves:
Head Coach Marv Dunphy enters his 25th season behind the Waves bench and holds a career record of 454-173 (.724). Pepperdine is led by All-American Paul Carroll, who has recorded 47 kills in just two matches this season. The Waves have senior Jonathan Winder as their primary setter and he has tallied 82 assists on the season.

Up Next:
After the two home games against USC and Pepperdine, the Cardinal will return to the road to take on UC Santa Barbara and CS Northridge. The UC Santa Barbara match will take place on Friday, Jan. 25 at 7:00 p.m. and the CS Northridge match will take place on Saturday, Jan. 26 at 7:00 p.m. Stanford has already faced CS Northridge earlier this season in the first round of the UCSB/Elephant Bar Classic and came away with a 3-1 victory.