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MVB MPSF Playoffs - Mick - 04-25-2025

#13 Stanford pulled off a stunning upset in the first round of the MPSF men's volleyball league championships, winning at a neutral site against #7 BYU 25-23, 19-25, 27-25, 19-25, 15-10 in Malibu. Stanford was twice beaten convincingly by BYU earlier in the season in Provo, 3-0 and 3-1.

Coach Kosty, as has been his history, has the men's volleyball team peaking in time for the playoffs. A highly motivated Stanford had a season-high 15.5 blocks as OH Theo Snoey pulled it together with 21 kills on .357 hitting average. He also had four aces and four blocks. Moses Wagner had 16 kills, three aces, six digs and four blocks. Setter Theo Brouillette had a career-high six blocks. Six Cardinal had at least three blocks, led by frosh middle Kau Carreira who had a career-high seven blocks.

Stanford Blocks BYU - Stanford Cardinal - Official Athletics Website

There were 24 tie scores and eight lead changes. 

#6 MPSF seed Stanford meets #2 seed USC in Malibu tonight at 8 p.m. Less than two weeks ago, Stanford played 'SC twice and beat 'SC both times at USC, 3-2 and 3-1. Should be a very entertaining matchup.

The other semifinal is #1 seed UCLA vs. #4 seed Pepperdine at 5 p.m., also in Malibu (at Pepperdine).

Men's Volleyball 2025 - Stanford Cardinal - Official Athletics Website

Championship match is tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m.
MPSF Men's Volleyball Championship - Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

RE: MVB MPSF Playoffs - BobK - 04-25-2025

Stunning is right. What a win

RE: MVB MPSF Playoffs - Maple Leaf - 04-25-2025

Amazing, especially since MVB was one of those sports that was scheduled to be eliminated.

RE: MVB MPSF Playoffs - BobK - 04-25-2025

MVB was eliminated then brought back. Lost our best player during the no more volleyball time

RE: MVB MPSF Playoffs - BACardinal - 04-25-2025

Here is the match against BYU. It looked like the low ceilings were troubling both teams early in the match

https://youtu.be/xwrmt5YTreA?si=n-Ixj3LzjtnjKewC

RE: MVB MPSF Playoffs - Mick - 04-25-2025

Pepperdine upset UCLA in the first semifinal.

Stanford (13-14) won the first game against USC (20-6), 25-23. SC won the second game by the same score. If you want to follow along, here's the Statcast link. I'll post the rest in the a.m.

STA 23, SOU 25 - SET 2

RE: MVB MPSF Playoffs - BostonCard - 04-25-2025

Not meant to be.  USC wins 3-1 (25-23, 23-25, 22-25, 19-25)

BC

RE: MVB MPSF Playoffs - Mick - 04-26-2025

(04-25-2025, 11:18 PM)BostonCard Wrote:  Not meant to be.  USC wins 3-1 (25-23, 23-25, 22-25, 19-25)

BC

Too bad. Really good season, and (like a lot of young teams) they came on late. And Stanford is a young team. They started and played Frosh libero Evan Porter of Punahou for 105 sets (and their only backup libero is also a frosh, Kai Schmitt, who played 73 sets). The starting middles were both freshmen, Reed Wainright (65 sets) and Kaumana Carreira (83 sets). The backup middles were Junior Luke McFall (47 sets) and Soph. Gray Mandelbaum (25 sets).

One starting OH was Soph Nate Clinton (84 sets). Backup OHs were Carson Kneisl (55 sets) and Ignacio Brito (52 sets).

The rising seniors are Setter Theoren Brouillette (105 sets), OH Theo Snoey (98 sets) and the Opposite (RH) Moses Wagner (103 sets). Theo's backup, Frosh Ryan Gant almost didn't play at all, 15 sets. If Theo goes down...  Snoey and Wagner were second-team all-MPSF, their first all-conference honors. Evan Porter made the all-frosh team. Snoey led the MPSF with 4.09 kills/4.64 points per set, ranked 10th with .33 aces per set. Porter was fourth in MPSF in digs and improved steadily throughout the season with 17 digs versus #3 USC late in the season.

Also a senior next year is Alex Rottman who remains on the roster, but didn't play at all, so if he returns will be a RS Junior. 

At any rate, the team doesn't graduate anyone, and they added four recruits for this fall, and have two commits for Fall, 2026.
Stanford's overall statistics were middling. As a team, they hit .281, sixth in the nine-team MPSF, and their defense gave up a .273 overall hitting percentage, also sixth in the MPSF. UCLA and USC led the MPSF in both categories with .367/.351 on offense and .226 and .243 on defense.

Stanford finished seventh in blocks (1.96 per game) and eighth in service aces (1.28 per game). USC led in blocks, 2.76 per game and UCLA led in aces with 1.91 per game. Stanford was eighth in digs at 7.89 per game, USC led the conference with 8.77 per game.

It is interesting to note that Stanford had its best statistical matches late in the season against USC (70 assists, 2nd most all season in the MPSF for a five-set match) and 63 sets, most in a four-set match against USC the next night.

As a team, Stanford didn't finish in the top three in any category. Some thoughts, worth what you paid for them:
- Theo Brouillette was second in the conference in assists per game, the team as a whole was fourth. So when someone else had to set (basically broken plays), the setting was substandard.
- With two frosh middles and a 6'3" setter, it isn't surprising that Stanford finished low in the conference in blocking. On a per-set basis, Stanford's only top-10 blocker was frosh MB Reed Wainwright. He was also third on the team in hitting percentage, right behind the other frosh MB. All that's great, but their attempts per set were quite low, indicating that maybe Stanford isn't the best passing team in the conference. And it all starts with passing. Soph OH Nate Clinton might have played more if he didn't have the most serve receive errors on the team, 0.45 per set. He did tie Snoey with 1.22 digs per set, right behind Wagner at 1.33 digs per set, best of the non-liberos.

Hope they all play a lot of beach volleyball this summer. That's where you sharpen your sword in all those categories.

Men's Volleyball 2025 Cumulative Statistics - Stanford Cardinal - Official Athletics Website

25mvb-stats (PDF) - Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

RE: MVB MPSF Playoffs - Mick - 04-26-2025

Stanford has four incoming recruits:

Erik Ask, 6'8" OH from Sweden. Great European qualifications. HS valedictorian, so he'll fit right in. Coach Kosty points to his size and refined high-level volleyball IQ.

Jacob Little-Phillips, 6'2" Setter from Florida. Was a 2024 AVCA Top 25 underclassman, which says a lot. Excellent setting skills, great hands, great decision-making, great quarterbacking per Coach Kosty. Going to be tough for him to block at 6'2" in the MPSF.

Jack Loper, 6'6" OH from San Clemente. Strong volleyball chops, also starting varsity quarterback as a soph, also four year varsity in basketball

Luke Morrison, 6'4" Oppo from Irvine. Good jump serve. Pacific Coast League MVP, All-CIF D2. Nice to have a lefty Oppo with a good jump serve.

I doubt that any of them will break into the starting lineup next year with the possible exception of the Swedish player, only because (a) I have no basis of comparison and (b) Coach Kosty rarely recruits overseas compared with some other coaches. So, he's either a nice-to-have or a great-to-have. We'll see next year. Ask will be 20 by the start of next season, that's a very mature freshman. His beach volleyball results were strong. His dad played on the Swedish national team.

RE: MVB MPSF Playoffs - Mick - 04-27-2025

End of year Stanford MVB video

https://fb.watch/ze9xhfYDN6/

RE: MVB MPSF Playoffs - Mick - 05-21-2025

The following Stanford MVB players made the MPSF All-Academic team. Had to be (a) soph or older, (b) 3.0 or better, © started in at least half of the varsity's games.  SMVB players listed with majors:

Ignacio Brito, Undeclared
Theoren Brouillette, Science Technology & Society
Nate Clinton, Undeclared
Luke McFall, Computer Science
Theo Snoey, Mathematics
Moses Wagner, Bioinspired Design & Engineering for Environmental Systems

Here's the link. 25mvb-all-academic (PDF) - Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

RE: MVB MPSF Playoffs - Mick - 06-09-2025

(04-26-2025, 05:55 AM)Mick Wrote:  Stanford has four incoming recruits:

Erik Ask, 6'8" OH from Sweden. Great European qualifications. HS valedictorian, so he'll fit right in. Coach Kosty points to his size and refined high-level volleyball IQ.

Jacob Little-Phillips, 6'2" Setter from Florida. Was a 2024 AVCA Top 25 underclassman, which says a lot. Excellent setting skills, great hands, great decision-making, great quarterbacking per Coach Kosty. Going to be tough for him to block at 6'2" in the MPSF.

Jack Loper, 6'6" OH from San Clemente. Strong volleyball chops, also starting varsity quarterback as a soph, also four year varsity in basketball

Luke Morrison, 6'4" Oppo from Irvine. Good jump serve. Pacific Coast League MVP, All-CIF D2. Nice to have a lefty Oppo with a good jump serve.

I doubt that any of them will break into the starting lineup next year with the possible exception of the Swedish player, only because (a) I have no basis of comparison and (b) Coach Kosty rarely recruits overseas compared with some other coaches. So, he's either a nice-to-have or a great-to-have. We'll see next year. Ask will be 20 by the start of next season, that's a very mature freshman. His beach volleyball results were strong. His dad played on the Swedish national team.

Just a note...all three American recruits received "Fab 50" recognition from Volleyball magazine, meaning they're considered one of the Top 50 players in the nation. Lewis, UCLA and USC each have four Fab 50 recruits, UCSB and BYU has three; Ball State, Penn State, Northern Kentucky, UCSD, Pepperdine, LBSU, Hawaii and Harvard each have two. Ohio State, LMU, Queens, CUI, Northridge, each have one. A middle from Bay to Bay (local club) is uncommitted.

Interesting mix. Not all of the Fab 50 are attending MPSF or D1 schools. D3 MIT has one of the recruits, one is going to a JC (Orange Coast College),