PROVO, Utah – Alex Rottman and Moses Wagner combined for 24 kills, but No. 4 seed Stanford fell at No. 5 seed BYU, 18-25, 14-25, 25-23, 21-25, Wednesday, in the quarterfinals of the MPSF Championship at Smith Fieldhouse.
No. 14 Stanford finishes the season 11-15 overall, while eighth-ranked BYU moves to 21-11. The Cougars hit .327 as a team, while holding the Cardinal to a .200 clip.
Rottman and Wagner each registered a team-high 12 kills. Wagner also tallied five digs, a block and an assist, while Rottman had two digs and two assists.
BYU jumped out to a 2-0 lead with convincing wins in the first two frames. Stanford produced just 15 kills in the first two sets combined as there were only four tie scores and one lead change.
Jacob Little-Phillips, who was named to the All-MPSF Freshman Team on Tuesday, earned the start at setter, posting nine assists, two blocks and a dig in the first two sets. Senior Theoren Brouillette took over in the third and totaled 31 assists, five digs and a pair of solo blocks.
Sophomore libero Evan Porter collected a match-high 11 digs – his seventh double-digit output of the season.
Senior Ryan DuRoss came off the bench in the first and started the final three sets, registering nine kills, two digs and two blocks in his final match in a Cardinal uniform. Middle blocker Luke McFall hit .455 with six kills, four blocks and an ace, while sophomore Kaumana Carreira chipped in with five kills and a block.
BYU was led by middle blocker AJ Cottle, who had 10 kills on 13 errorless swings for a .769 attack percentage to go with nine blocks. The Cougars will face top seed UCLA on Thursday in the semifinals.