Men's Volleyball Returns Home For Matches Versus Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount

Toppel earns MPSF Player of the Week honors for the second time this season.

Feb. 16, 2000

Upcoming Matches: Thur., Feb. 17 #3 Pepperdine 7:00 p.m. Fri., Feb. 18 #9 Loyola Marymount 7:00 p.m.

Last Matches: Fri., Feb. 11 at San Diego State W, 3-1 Sat., Feb. 12 at UC San Diego W, 3-0

Weekend Recap: The Cardinal earned its third and fourth wins of the season last week after taking matches from San Diego State and UC San Diego. All four victories for the Cardinal this season have come against the two San Diego schools. Stanford opened against San Diego State on February 11, and saw freshman middle blocker Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, CA) record 48 kills in the 15-11, 12-15, 15-10, 15-11 victory. The Cardinal tallied season-highs in kills (103), blocks (16) and assists (98) versus the Aztecs. At UC San Diego (2/12), Stanford received a match-high 15 kills from sophomore outside hitter Marcus Skacel (Laguna Niguel, CA) and 12 kills from freshman outside hitter William Curtis (Whittier, CA). For the match, Stanford hit .339, recording 57 kills on 115 attacks. The Cardinal are now 4-6 for the season and have evened its Mountain Pacific Sports Federation record to 4-4.

National Statistics: Freshman middle blocker Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) continues to lead the nation with a 8.41 kills-per game average after his 48-kill performance last week versus San Diego State. USC's Brook Billings is second in the nation at 6.97 kills-per game. Junior setter Josh Lukens (San Diego, CA) is ninth in the country in assists-per game at 17.72 and sophomore outside hitter Marcus Skacel (Laguna Niguel, CA) broke into the national rankings at No. 18 by digging 2.16 balls-per game.

MPSF Player of the Week: Cardinal middle blocker Curt Toppel earned Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Week honors for the second time this season after he recorded 48 kills and a .526 hitting percentage in a 3-1 victory over San Diego State (2/10). Toppel's 48 kills is the highest in the nation this season and the 8.41 average is tops on the Cardinal singles season list and if the season ended today, Toppel would break the MPSF record of 8.32 set by Pepperdine's George Roumain in 1999.

Another Freshman Excels: The Cardinal received another outstanding performance from a member of its freshman class when outside hitter William Curtis (Whittier, CA) recorded 10 or more kills for the first time this season. With the Cardinal playing without Curt Toppel, Curtis stepped up his game, tallying 12 kills in a three-game match versus UC San Diego. Curtis also had two assists and five digs in the victory.

Quick Notes: Stanford has averaged 654 fans in four matches this season at Maples Pavilion, a seven year high for the first four matches of the season... Stanford remained out of the USA Today/AVCA poll for the second straight week... The Cardinal reached a season-high No. 12 in the Jan. 18 poll... Junior setter Josh Lukens recorded a season-high 89 assists versus San Diego State (2/10)... Lukens reached the 2,000 assist milestone against San Diego State on January 16... The Cardinal will face No. 3 Pepperdine on Thursday, Feb. 17 and No. 9 Loyola Marymount on Friday, Feb. 19 at Maples Pavilion... The Waves currently lead the MPSF Mountain Division with 6-1 (4-1 MPSF) record, while the Lions carry a 2-4 (1-4 MPSF) record into this week's matches.

Overall Record: 4-6
MPSF Record: 4-4
Home: 2-2
Away: 2-3
Neutral: 0-1
vs. Top 15: 0-6

Coaching Staff
Head Coach:
Ruben Nieves (10th season)
Record: 153-70 (9th seasons)
at Stanford: same
Assistants:
John Kosty (10th season)
Al Roderigues (8th season)

Conf. Overall Pacific Division W L W L USC 6 0 9 1 Long Beach State 5 0 8 1 Hawaii 4 1 8 2 Pacific 4 4 5 7 Stanford 4 4 4 6 UC San Diego 0 7 3 7 San Diego State 0 7 1 7

Conf. Overall Mountain Division W L W L Pepperdine 4 1 6 1 BYU 7 3 10 3 UCLA 4 2 10 2 UC Santa Barbara 3 2 4 2 Cal St. Northridge 1 4 2 4 Loyola Marymount 1 1 2 1 UC Irvine 1 5 3 7