Stanford men’s volleyball travels to Provo to take on BYU

After opening with a successful weekend sweep of No. 8 Hawaii, the No. 3 Stanford men’s volleyball team travels to Utah to face No. 5 BYU for another weekend of challenging Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) competition.

“We executed pretty well on offense and defense,” said Stanford head coach John Kosty of the Hawaii matches. “It was good for us not having to rely on a big serving night to win the match. We did have a big serving night, but we sided out at a high level in both matches, so serving was icing on the cake.”

While the Cardinal swept Hawaii over the weekend, BYU swept its two matches against Pacific.

During BYU’s home opener on Friday, outside hitters Andrew Stewart and Kevin Sagers led the Cougars offensively with nine kills each. BYU’s biggest advantage came from powerful middle blockers that rallied 18 blocks for the night, led by Russell Lavaja and Futi Tavana, who each put up seven. The following night, BYU’s offensive leaders Robb Stowell and Stewart hit 13 and 10 kills, respectively. The Cougars swept Pacific both nights 3-0.

BYU features a strong team that faced three other MPSF teams already — No. 2 UC-Irvine, No. 8 UCLA and No. 9 Cal State Northridge. While it was only tournament play, BYU pulled out wins over Irvine, the defending national champions and UCLA. However, the Cougars fell to Northridge.

Kosty expects it to be “a dog fight.”

Last year, Stanford beat BYU two of the three times they matched up. The loss was the result of a five-set thriller and the two wins were 3-0 sweeps. But, another year adds more experience and consistency.

“Both teams are very consistent and don’t make a lot of unforced errors,” Kosty said. “As usual for men’s volleyball, the serving and passing battle will probably decide the match.”

With sophomore libero Erik Shoji on the Stanford side, who racked up 20 digs last weekend, the passing is expected to be solid. Shoji is the defensive leader for the Card and has put up numbers to blow away any national competition.

“I think our biggest strength at this point is our ball control,” Shoji said. “Each match, we try to force our opponent into the mistakes by not making them ourselves. Also, we try to be ‘in-system’ as much as possible, which makes it more difficult for our opponents to stop us.”

And, as Kosty mentioned, the serving game will be one of the defining factors of the match. Last weekend, the Card was fortunate enough not to have to depend on its serves. Even still, sophomore outside hitter Brad Lawson dominated with five aces of the 10.

Although Stanford has a stacked lineup that is senior-led by setter Kawika Shoji, opposite Evan Romero and middle blocker Garrett Werner, playing the first away match of the season at BYU has its challenges.

“The best thing about BYU is their crowd. There are a lot of them and they can be loud,” Werner said. “The gym’s a lot of fun to play in because the crowd surrounds you. When you go back to serve . . . [they are] pretty much breathing down your neck behind you.”

BYU continuously brings in thousands of fans, which might be a slight disadvantage if the Card begins to lose focus.

“Even with an opposing crowd, I think our focus will be even stronger, since we’ll only want to concentrate on our play and not their fans,” Werner said.

Despite outside factors, Stanford should match up evenly against BYU, as both teams boast similar styles of play, which reinforces the need for good serving and passing. Both teams are strong offensively and are capable of tough defense.

This weekend will be another important series in deciding where the Cardinal will stand in the MPSF.

Men’s volleyball will return home on Jan. 23 in Burnham Pavilion to play UC-Santa Barbara at 7 p.m.