Feb. 20, 2007

Stanford at No. 1 Pepperdine - Thursday, February 22 (7:00 pm)

Stanford at No. 14 USC - Friday, February 23 (7:00 pm)

COMING UP: Stanford Men's Volleyball (1-15, 1-10 MPSF) goes on the road to face top-ranked Pepperdine (11-1, 9-1 MPSF) in Malibu and fourteenth-ranked USC (4-9, 3-7. MPSF) in Los Angeles this weekend. Pepperdine is currently on an eight-match winning steak, while USC is coming off of a split series against Hawaii. In week seven of MPSF competition, the Cardinal are looking to improve upon their season record.

UC IRVINE TOPS STANFORD IN THREE: The Cardinal were shut out by UC Irvine 30-27, 30-22, 30-20 in the second competition between the teams in consecutive weekends. Stanford struggled to keep pace with the balanced attack of the Anteaters. While both teams were plagued by service errors, Stanford hit just .151 on the match while Irvine hit .378, which gave the Anteaters the winning edge. Stanford's attack was led by junior Matt Ceran and freshman Evan Romero, who had 9 kills and 5 blocks each. Sophomore Brandon Williams added 8 kills for the Cardinal. Seniors Jayson Jablonsky and Matt Webber led Irvine with 21 kills between them.

STANFORD EDGED BY NO. 6 UCLA: The Cardinal started off hot in an energized game one, but fell to the Bruins in four games. In a fairly even match statistically, much like the previous match between these two teams, in the end the Cardinal were bested by the Bruins' hitting and service game. Senior Matt Ceran led Stanford in kills with 17, while freshman Garrett Werner added 11 kills (.786). Sophomore Jarod Keller had a match-high 10 digs for the Cardinal. Freshman Kawika Shoji had 42 set assists. For the Bruins, senior Steve Klosterman had a match-high 19 kills and two of UCLA's nine service aces.

ABOUT THE WAVES: Pepperdine won its seventh and eighth straight match with a five and three set win over top-ranked BYU. The Waves limited the Cougars to a .216 attack in eight sets, about 100 percentage points below their conference average. Sophomore Paul Carroll, who ranks second in the MPSF in kills (6.02 kpg) and in service aces, combined for a team-high 36 kills and five aces in the two home wins for the Waves. Senior Tom Hulse totaled 12 blocks on the weekend. Pepperdine's starting setter, sophomore Jonathan Winder, holds the third-ranked spot for assists.

ABOUT THE TROJANS: USC won in five and lost in four at Hawaii this past week. Junior Juan Figueroa, who ranks third in kills in the MPSF (4.97 kpg), collected 35 kills (.410) on night one, breaking a career mark from his previous match. Junior Andrew Vernon added 11 kills and six blocks in the win. Junior setter Jimmy Killian ranks second in the conference in set assists for the Trojans.

UP NEXT: Stanford heads to Stockton to battle Pacific on March 2. They return home to Burnham Pavilion to face Quincy University March 5 at 7:00 pm.