After dropping the opening frame at Loyola of Chicago, the Stanford men’s volleyball team captured three straight sets for a hard-fought 3-1 victory. With the win, the No. 2 Cardinal (8-2, 5-2 MPSF) finished off its sixth road match in its last seven games, concluding a trip that began on Jan. 21 and saw Stanford play seven matches in three different time zones, including stops in Hawaii, Los Angeles and Chicago. The Cardinal finished the tour with a 5-2 record.

Loyola (5-3) certainly didn’t play like a Div. II opponent on Saturday, coming out in the first set with a blistering .667 hitting percentage that overwhelmed the Cardinal. But thanks to three early service aces, Stanford jumped out to an 8-2 lead in game two and didn’t look back, taking advantage of seven Rambler service errors to take the second set, 25-14.

“After losing the first set, we realized that we had to be a little sharper on our side of the net to compete with them, especially after how they played in the first set,” said junior outside hitter Brad Lawson. “Luckily for us, their serving game eased up and we were able to get some better passes, which helped us run a more balanced offense to keep their blockers guessing.”

The third set was much tighter, with 16 ties and four lead changes. But freshman outside hitter Steven Irvin had a breakout match off the bench and carried the Cardinal with seven kills in the third game alone. With the score tied at 21-21, Irvin had a kill to put Stanford up one, and then had another kill just two points later to make it 24-21. Lawson put the game away and put Stanford up, two sets to one, with his third kill of the game.

Lawson came on strong in the fourth set with seven kills, but it was the play of another freshman that really made the difference in another tight set. Freshman outside hitter Eric Mochalski had four kills in the fourth set, but more importantly, he did not miss an attack opportunity, going 6-for-6 on the match. The hot hitting of Stanford’s attack killed a late rally by Loyola, and the Cardinal hit .500 while only missing five side-out opportunities as the Ramblers missed nine.

“The key was really our serving and passing,” said Stanford head coach John Kosty. “The games we lost were due to the other team being more efficient in their passing and serving games.”

In its first match of the weekend, against Lewis University (6-2) in Chicago, Stanford stepped into a hostile environment at Neil Carey Arena. Kosty called the student section, “big and right in your face.” And with an announced attendance of 1,356 in a 1,100-seat building, the match felt much more like a playoff game than a non-conference match between Div. I Stanford and Div. II Lewis.

Lawson had a match-high 19 kills and the offense was certainly flowing behind a .370 hitting percentage and junior Evan Barry’s 37 assists. But it was the defense that carried the Cardinal past the Flyers, 3-1. Senior middle blocker Gus Ellis had seven of Stanford’s 15.5 blocks and set the tone with a solo block on the first point of the match.

The Flyers hit just .270 on the night and were forced into 21 attack errors that put their offense on its heels.

“They had some really good young players and a strong offense,” Kosty said. “But we showed that we can play at a high level on the road. Their fans were certainly loud but we kept our focus on the game plan.”

Stanford got a great boost from its own young players, most notably Brian Cook. The freshman outside hitter from Santa Cruz, Calif. had 10 kills, eight digs and four blocks while hitting .500.

It was a contribution Kosty has come to expect from his young players–Cook, Mochalski and Irvin are third, fourth and fifth on the team in kills, respectively.

With the last regular-season trip outside California out of the way, the Cardinal returns home and jumps right back into the MPSF frying pan with matches against UC-San Diego and UC-Irvine on Friday and Saturday. The matches will both start at 7 p.m. at Maples Pavilion.