March 2, 2012

STANFORD, Calif. - The Stanford men’s volleyball team has fallen out of No. 1, but the Cardinal is not through with high-ranked matchups. On Saturday, No. 2 Stanford takes on No. 3 UC Irvine in a match with strong postseason implications. This comes a night after the Cardinal plays host to upset-minded UC San Diego. Both are at Maples Pavilion.

Stanford and UCI are battling for favorable seeding in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament and for an edge at a possible NCAA at-large berth. Therefore, the result could prove vital two months from today. If Stanford, which beat UCI in three on Feb. 18, wins one set from the Anteaters, the Cardinal wins the tiebreaking edge between the two for MPSF tournament seeding purposes.

This Week:
Friday, 7 p.m.: UC San Diego (3-13, 1-10) at No. 2 Stanford (12-3, 9-2), at Maples Pavilion
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Saturday, 7 p.m.: No. 3 UC Irvine (12-3, 8-3) at Stanford, at Maples Pavilion
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Next Week:
Tuesday, 7 p.m.: Hawai’i at Stanford, at Burnham Pavilion
Wednesday, 7 p.m.: Hawai’i at Stanford, at Maples Pavilion

Halfway Point: Stanford is 9-2 at the halfway point of the MPSF season. If the Cardinal can maintain that pace, it would finish 18-4 – its’ best conference record since winning the MPSF Pacific Division with a 16-3 mark in 1997. However, the 11-match start is even better than the 1997 national-championship team, which began 8-3, but won its remaining eight conference matches. Stanford’s 2010 national championship team was 7-4 at the halfway point and finished first in the MPSF at 16-6.

Home Run: Stanford is in the midst of a six-match homestand and plays nine of its remaining 11 regular-season matches at home. With only two conference home matches so far, Stanford has played the fewest at home in the MPSF. Cal State Northridge and UC Santa Barbara are next with four. Of course, that also means that Stanford will play more at home down the stretch than any other school. The Cardinal is 1-1 in MPSF home matches after playing its first nine on the road.

No. 1, Briefly: Stanford held the No. 1 spot in the AVCA and Volleyball Magazine rankings for one week – in the Feb. 21 editions. A five-set loss to then-No. 6 USC at home on Feb. 25 dropped the Cardinal down a spot in both polls.

Last Week: In its conference home-opening weekend, Stanford split against Pepperdine and USC before an average crowd of 1,333. On Feb. 23, the No. 1 Cardinal beat Pepperdine, 25-21, 24-26, 25-19, 25-18. It was Stanford’s latest conference home opener ever by date. On Saturday, Stanford lost to USC 21-25, 25-18, 25-27, 25-16, 15-13, ending an eight-match winning streak before a season-high crowd of 1,481. Brad Lawson had a season-high 24 kills for Stanford, and USC’s Tony Ciarelli had 28 on the way to earning AVCA national player of the week honors.

The MPSF Race: Stanford (9-2) is in second place in the 12-team MPSF and trails leader UCLA (10-1) by a full match. USC’s victory over Stanford tightened the top of the conference so that five teams are separated by only three matches in the standings.

What It Means: Not only are teams vying for top seeds in the eight-team MPSF tournament (April 21-28), which determines the conference’s lone automatic berth to the NCAA tournament, but they are attempting to get an edge on other at-large contenders should it fail to win the MPSF tournament. Of the NCAA’s 42 men’s volleyball titles, current MPSF teams hold 36 of those.

Road Warriors: Recently, Stanford completed a 10-match, 40-day stretch away from home. The Cardinal went 8-2 during the series of trips that covered more than 7,600 miles. The stretch included victories at then-No. 1 BYU (twice), then-No. 2 UC Irvine, and defending NCAA champion Ohio State.

Stanford in Statistics: Senior setter Evan Barry leads the nation in assists per set at 12.09. Senior libero Erik Shoji is fourth in digs per set at 2.59. Outside hitters Brad Lawson (.350) and Brian Cook (.344) are 10th and 11th in hitting percentage.

As a team, The Cardinal leads the nation in assists per set (13.28) and kills per set (13.93). Stanford is third in hitting percentage, with .357.

Friday’s Opponent, UC San Diego: The Tritons actually are better on the road (3-3) than at home (0-10). UCSD is last in the conference at 1-10 and is last in the conference in opponents’ hitting percentage, allowing a .300 clip. UCSD sophomore starting middle blocker Fred Stahl is the son of the former Stanford football player of the same name. The elder Fred Stahl played on the Cardinal’s 1986 Gator Bowl team.

The UC San Diego Series: Stanford holds a 38-3 all-time series lead against UC San Diego, but Tritons can surprise, beating the Cardinal at Stanford last year, snapping an 18-match losing streak in the series. Stanford won their first season meeting, on Feb. 18, when Brian Cook and Brad Lawson had 17 kills each to lead Stanford, 25-17, 24-26, 25-14, 25-14, and end a 10-match Cardinal road swing.

Saturday’s Opponent, UC Irvine: UCI, the AVCA preseason No. 1, leads the nation in aces per set, with 1.87 and has 101 aces. No other school in the country has more than 89. Carson Clark’s 26 aces are the most in the country. The Anteaters are second in the country in two categories to Stanford: assists per set (12.85) and kills per set (13.61).

The UC Irvine Series: Trailing by scores of 22-16 and 24-21 on Feb. 17 in Irvine, Stanford fought off eight set points in a 32-30, 25-15, 25-23 victory. Eric Mochalski had five blocks down the stretch of that set, and Brad Lawson had eight kills and no hitting errors in the set. Brian Cook had a match-high 15 kills for Stanford. Stanford has won six consecutive matches against UCI over the past three seasons, Stanford leads the all-time series 30-12.