Feb. 20, 2012

STANFORD, Calif. - The Stanford men's volleyball team is now the No. 1 team in the nation heading into its conference home-opening weekend against Pepperdine and USC.

Stanford moved up three spots from No. 4 in the AVCA Division I-II Coaches' Poll following road victories over No. 2 UC Irvine and unranked UC San Diego last week, combined with No. 1 UCLA's loss at Long Beach State.

Stanford received eight of 16 first-place votes, with the others going to No. 2 UCLA (six votes), No. 4 UC Irvine (one) and No. 5 Penn State (one). Stanford's losses have come against UCLA and Penn State, but the Cardinal also has two road victories over No. 3 BYU.

Stanford (11-2 overall) has won seven consecutive matches -- all on the road -- as it heads into Friday's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation home opener against No. 10 Pepperdine (7-5). On Saturday, Stanford plays host to No. 6 USC (7-4). Both are at Maples Pavilion and begin at 7 p.m.

Stanford, which plays 11 of its final 13 regular-season matches at home, just concluded a 10-match road stretch that has kept the team away from home for 40 days.

Stanford (8-1 in the MPSF) is tied for UCLA (9-1) for first place in the loss column.

Stanford has been ranked as high as No. 2 this season, and this is its first No. 1 ranking since finishing on top with an NCAA championship in 2010. This is Stanford's 23rd No. 1 ranking.