LA JOLLA, Calif. - UC San Diego rounded out a four-match homestand with a 3-1 loss to Stanford University in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) men's volleyball action Saturday night at RIMAC Arena. Set scores were 25-23, 22-25, 25-13 and 25-18.
With the result, UCSD fell to 1-12 overall and 0-9 in the MPSF. Stanford concluded a season-long six-match road stretch with its lone win after five straight defeats, improving to 4-9 overall and 3-6 in league play. The Cardinal have taken eight straight meetings.
Tanner Syftestad produced season bests of 16 kills and a match-high four service aces to lead the Tritons, adding four digs and equaling his season high of five total blocks. Mathew Schnitzer got his hands to a career-best six total blocks to go along with five kills. Milosh Stojcic collected season highs of 37 assists and seven digs. Libero Tanner Howard and fellow junior Kirill Rudenko each reached double figures in digs, at 12 and a career-high 10, respectively. Rudenko added eight kills. Ian Colbert wound up with six kills and five digs, with Shayne Beamer coming up with five kills and three blocks.
Madison Hayden's 21 kills for Stanford led all players. Conrad Kaminski joined him in double figures with 12, hitting .550 (12-1-20). Spencer Haly contributed eight kills alongside a match-high seven total blocks. Freshman setter Kyle Dagostino had 47 assists, 12 digs and three aces. Libero Evan Enriques got to 14 digs.
The first set was the tightest of the night, featuring 17 tie scores and six lead changes, but the Cardinal managed to pull it out in the end, 25-23. Freshman Tyler Bird entered the fray for the first time with the Tritons trailing 21-19, and temporarily knotted the score in his service rotation, with his first career ace and a crosscourt Syftestad kill coming around a Stanford timeout.
UCSD stormed out to a 6-1 lead when Syftestad's second ace of the match hit the ground and forced an early Cardinal timeout, in what was ultimately a 25-22 set-two victory. Schnitzer and Syftestad teamed up for a big block on Hayden later for a 14-11 edge. Stanford tallied three straight to level matters at 18-18, but UCSD notched the last four points to take it. Freshman Mac Egan came on right after Colbert began that late run with a kill, and promptly combined on back-to-back stuff blocks with Schnitzer, ahead of another Syftestad ace on set point.
Stanford rattled off the first seven points of the third and never looked back.
In the fourth, an incredible Colbert dig enabled a Rudenko kill for a 5-5 deadlock early. After a Triton timeout, Stanford's Alex Stephanus handled the overpass as the visitors took a 12-8 lead. What followed was back-to-back combo blocks by UCSD, the first by Beamer and Syftestad and the second by Schnitzer and Syftestad. A Stanford triple block by Dagostino, Haly and Gabriel Vega made it 19-15, with the Tritons unable from there to cut the deficit under three. Freshman Alec Flowers did register his first career kill for his side's final point of the contest at 22-18.
UCSD plays just a single match in the week ahead, completing its home-and-home season series with fourth-ranked MPSF leader Pepperdine in Malibu on Friday night, Feb. 20. First serve inside Firestone Fieldhouse is set for 7 p.m. The Waves swept the Tritons in La Jolla this past Friday.
#TritonsRising
