Jan. 4, 2008
Stanford Men's Volleyball (1-0) started strong and defeated the third seeded Cal-State Northridge Matadors (0-1) 30-27, 30-25, 28-30, 32-30 in the opening round of the UCSB/Elephant Bar Classic on Friday afternoon on the campus of UCSB. Senior Matt Ceran led the way for the Cardinal with 19 kills and finished with a hitting percentage of .333 to lead the squad. Evan Romero collected 14 kills in the season opening match and freshman Spencer McLachlin finished with 13 kills in his season debut.
Freshman Jordan Inafuku played a strong overall game in his collegiate debut as well, coming up with a lot of crucial digs in the match to prevent Northridge from going on big runs. Sophomore Kawika Shoji, an All-MPSF performer last season, led the Cardinal service aces with three and once again played a large role in the season opening victory.
In game one, Stanford started very strong and raced out to a 6-1 lead earlier in the game. The Cardinal extended the lead to 16-7 off of strong serving and block play to take control of the game. Northridge made a run late in the game, but it wasn't enough as Stanford held on to win the game 30-27.
The second and third games started out different for the Cardinal, as they fell behind early in both games. In game two, the Cardinal rallied to tie the score and eventually pass Northridge to take the second game 30-25. After Northridge made lineup changes in the third game, Stanford's ball handling and overall efficiency went down as they dropping the game 28-30. The Cardinal made a huge rally in the end to tie the score at 28 apiece, but several mistakes throughout the game cost the Cardinal a chance to sweep the Matadors.
The fourth and final game was the most competitive of the match and was close throughout. Shoji led the Cardinal to an early lead, but the Matadors battled back and forced a number of ties throughout the game. The game eventually turned into a sideout battle and wasn't decided until Romero came through with his only service ace of the match, to give the Cardinal the 32-30 victory in the game.
Head Coach John Kosty was very pleased with the overall effort in his team's season opener. "We competed very well through all the games, and I was very proud of our guys for battling back after losing the third game."
The win sets up a second round match against the Anteaters of UC-Irvine, who are the second seed. The match will begin at 7:00 PM and will take place at the Thunderdome on the campus of UCSB. UC Irvine defeated host UCSB 30-21, 30-26, 28-30, 35-33 in another first round match.