LA JOLLA, Calif. - Third-ranked Stanford hit .427 en route to sweeping the UC San Diego men's volleyball team, 3-0, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) match at RIMAC Arena on Thursday night. Set scores were 25-14, 25-17 and 25-18.
With the result, UCSD dropped to 4-14 overall and 0-13 in the MPSF. A sixth straight triumph lifted Stanford to 13-2 overall and 11-2 in league play. The Cardinal moved back into a first-place tie with top-ranked Long Beach State. They won the season's first meeting in the Bay Area in straight sets as well, on Jan. 22.
In the middle of Stanford's hot hitting (42-10-75), quite literally, were blockers Kevin Rakestraw (11-0-14) and Conrad Kaminski (7-0-7), who combined for 18 kills without committing a single error. Kaminski was perfect on offense, while Rakestraw attacked at .786 and added five blocks to share the match high with teammate Alex Stephanus off the bench. Star senior setter James Shaw finished with 21 assists, five kills on five attempts, two blocks, one dig and a service ace. Liberos Evan Enriques and Kyle Dagostino got to seven digs apiece.
By comparison, UCSD attacked at a .159 (29-16-82) rate. Freshman opposite Nathan Thalken matched his high with a team-best seven kills. Ian Colbert added six from the outside, to go along with five digs. Senior libero Tanner Howard paced the Tritons in the latter category, with six digs. Freshman setter Ryan Blaich dished out 16 assists in a reserve role, while sophomore starter Milosh Stojcic fell short of double-figure helpers for the first time in 2016, at eight.
Stanford tallied the first point of the night, and after a single tie score of 1-1 in the opening frame, procured the next two and led the rest of the way. The Cardinal were up 9-4 and 22-12 at the two Triton timeouts.
Set two saw the visitors start things off with successive points on a kill by reigning MPSF and national Player of the Week Gabriel Vega, and Shaw's ace. UCSD produced the next three for its first lead of the evening at 3-2, and held a 4-3 edge before surrendering three straight. Another 3-0 run a short time later, which included the contest's lone solo stuff by Shaw, put Stanford up 10-6 at the first break. Junior Shayne Beamer's ace after a Thalken kill pulled the Tritons back within two at 10-8.
The Cardinal remained in control, however, but not without a couple of highlights for the home side. Calvin Manchenko contributed back-to-back kills to make it 17-12, and fellow redshirt sophomore Bryan Zhu (San Diego/Rancho Bernardo HS) entered for the first time toward the very end and immediately struck a thunderous kill ahead of an ace for 23-17. The match's only triple block, by Rakestraw, Stephanus and Russell Dervay, came on set point.
The final stanza began with a Stanford attack error, but the Cardinal recorded four of the next five points and didn't look back. Manchenko and Zhu teamed up for a huge block on Vega for 21-14, though the result was not much in doubt by then.
UCSD is off this weekend and hosts No. 10 Pepperdine (6-5, 5-5 MPSF) next Wednesday, March 2. First serve at RIMAC Arena is set for 7 p.m.
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