PROVO, Utah – The Cardinal offense was clicking on all cylinders as the No. 3 seed Stanford men’s volleyball team (22-7) swept No. 2 seed Pepperdine, 25-16, 25-19, 25-16, Thursday, in the MPSF semifinals at Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah.
"I think we played Stanford volleyball tonight," said head coach John Kosty. "We passed well and didn't give up too many unforced errors. We had a solid all-around game and played up to our potential."
The Cardinal, which defeated the Waves (19-7) for the third time this season, advances to the MPSF finals on Saturday, April 26 and will take on the winner of the BYU-UC Santa Barbara match being played Thursday evening.
As a team, Stanford posted its second-best offensive match of the season hitting .474. The Cardinal registered 10 blocks in the match, holding the Waves to a .114 clip. Stanford trailed Pepperdine just twice in the match, both times coming in the second set.
"We executed our game-plan well tonight. The block and dig totals on the box score show that we were in the right spots," added Kosty.
Senior outside hitter Brian Cook, a two-time AVCA first team All-American, led all players with 17 kills on 24 swings with just one error to hit .667. The Santa Cruz, Calif., native also tallied seven digs and two blocks.
"Brian dictated the action on the court tonight. His hitting numbers reflect that," said Kosty. "But, I thought it was a nice performance overall, everyone contributed."
Sophomore middle Conrad Kaminski added eight kills on a .636 attack percentage and matched his season-best with eight blocks. Senior Steven Irvin totaled nine kills on seven digs, while senior Eric Mochalski added seven kills, hitting .429, and three blocks.
Sophomore setter James Shaw controlled the offense with 39 assists. He also recorded four kills, three blocks and two digs in the win. Redshirt junior libero Grant Delgado finished with six digs.
No Pepperdine player registered more than six kills in the match. Nikola Antonijevic led the Waves with six kills on a .400 hitting percentage. Setter Matt West posted 24 assists and five digs. All-American Josh Taylor was held to five kills on a -.118 hitting percentage.
Stanford is now 14-0 on the season in three-set matches. The Cardinal has 13 consecutive wins in which it has only dropped nine sets.