The third-seeded Stanford men’s volleyball team ran like a well-oiled machine in beating No. 2 Pepperdine, 25-16, 25-19, 25-16, Thursday in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation semifinals at Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah.
“I think we played Stanford volleyball tonight,” Cardinal coach John Kosty said. “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 (22-7), which defeated the Waves for the third time this season, advances to the MPSF finals on Saturday and will meet top-seeded BYU (20-8), which swept No. 4 UC Santa Barbara. Stanford is 0-2 against the Cougars in league play this season.
Stanford produced its second-best offensive match of the season, with a hitting percentage of .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.
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. He also had seven digs and two blocks.
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.
Stanford improved to 14-0 on the season in three-set matches. The Cardinal has 13 consecutive wins, dropping nine sets during that span.
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics