Tough road trip against #3 Hawaii (9-1), two losses, 3-1 and 3-0, Stanford now 7-3 on the season. Soph Alex Rottman was back, Senior Will Rottman still out.
Stanford won the first game of the opener, 25-21, then lost three straight, and two of them (25-15, 25-12) weren't close. UH outperformed Stanford in every phase of the game, including hitting (.346 to .153), hitting errors (14-25) total errors (32-49), blocking (11.5 to 4), kills (50-43), assists (46-39). Setter Nathan Lietzke totaled 32 assists to go with a season-high six kills on .556 hitting, three aces, three digs and a block. Libero Luke Turner tallied six digs and three assists and Gates hit well. None of the other hitters had a successful day.
Second match was worse, Stanford lost 3-0. First game was agonizingly close, 27-25 loss. A dispirited Stanford team lost the second game 25-7, lost the third game 25-20. Blocking defense was nonexistent as Hawaii had 44 kills and 3 errors (three!) in 69 attempts for an unheard-of .594 hitting percentage and Hawaii led in blocks, 13-1. Stanford lost total error battle, 34-21.
Maybe they were intimidated by the big crowds, 6,100 for the first match, 9,200 for the second match. Stanford has lost 11 straight matches to Hawaii. At least this wasn't an MPSF match, Hawaii is in the Big West. BTW, MPSF matches won't be any picnic. Here's the current MPSF standings, all records OOC:
Grand Canyon, 9-0
Concordia, 5-1
Pepperdine, 9-2
UCLA, 9-3
BYU, 9-3
Stanford, 7-3
USC, 8-4
Next weekend, home match vs. UC Irvine, where Stanford will hopefully get back on track.
Stanford won the first game of the opener, 25-21, then lost three straight, and two of them (25-15, 25-12) weren't close. UH outperformed Stanford in every phase of the game, including hitting (.346 to .153), hitting errors (14-25) total errors (32-49), blocking (11.5 to 4), kills (50-43), assists (46-39). Setter Nathan Lietzke totaled 32 assists to go with a season-high six kills on .556 hitting, three aces, three digs and a block. Libero Luke Turner tallied six digs and three assists and Gates hit well. None of the other hitters had a successful day.
Second match was worse, Stanford lost 3-0. First game was agonizingly close, 27-25 loss. A dispirited Stanford team lost the second game 25-7, lost the third game 25-20. Blocking defense was nonexistent as Hawaii had 44 kills and 3 errors (three!) in 69 attempts for an unheard-of .594 hitting percentage and Hawaii led in blocks, 13-1. Stanford lost total error battle, 34-21.
Maybe they were intimidated by the big crowds, 6,100 for the first match, 9,200 for the second match. Stanford has lost 11 straight matches to Hawaii. At least this wasn't an MPSF match, Hawaii is in the Big West. BTW, MPSF matches won't be any picnic. Here's the current MPSF standings, all records OOC:
Grand Canyon, 9-0
Concordia, 5-1
Pepperdine, 9-2
UCLA, 9-3
BYU, 9-3
Stanford, 7-3
USC, 8-4
Next weekend, home match vs. UC Irvine, where Stanford will hopefully get back on track.
Audaces fortuna iuvat
