USC
Stanford
No. 1 Stanford Men's Volleyball Sweeps USC
April 10, 2010 | Men's Volleyball
April 10, 2010
The top-ranked Stanford men's volleyball team easily swept No. 6 USC, 30-23, 30-24, 30-15, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match in Palo Alto on Saturday (April 10).
Stanford improved to 18-5 overall and 15-5 in the MPSF, while the Trojans dropped to 14-10 overall and 11-9 in league play.
The Cardinal hit .376 in the match, while USC managed to hit just .133. Stanford also had 13 blocks to USC's 9.5, made 40 digs to USC's 29 and served 3 aces.
Tony Ciarelli led USC with 14 kills and he also had 4 blocks. Murphy Troy added 9 kills and 6 digs, Hunter Current and Austin Zahn each had 8 kills and 4 blocks and Riley McKibbin had 9 digs.
For Stanford, Brad Lawson had 15 kills while hitting .400, Evan Romero added 13 kills, the Shoji brothers combined for 24 digs (13 by Kawika and 11 by Erik) and Garrett Werner had 8 blocks.
The first set was tied at 9-9 when Stanford went on a 4-0 run for a lead it never relinquished (it hit .371 to USC's .170). The Trojans held a 14-7 margin in the second set, but Stanford caught up at 17-17 and then slowly pulled away. The Cardinal gained control early in the third set by building a 10-3 edge and was never threatened while hitting .538.
USC, which has already secured a berth into the MPSF tournament, concludes MPSF regular-season play next week with matches at No. 14 UC San Diego on Friday (April 16) and No. 8 Long Beach State on Saturday (April 17).
