Stanford dropped a pair of decisions to Lewis and Loyola Universities over the weekend at the AVCA Showcase tournament, a preview of the nation’s top teams at the site of the 2015 NCAA Championships. Maples Pavilion hosted two matches per day, with Stanford headlining the later game both times.

No. 9 Lewis was the enemy on Friday night, with the Chicago-based outfit notching a 3-0 victory over the Cardinal. The Flyers got dominant performances from outside hitter Greg Petty and opposite Eric Fitterer, both of whom tallied 15 kills on 22 attacks and posted hitting percentages over .500. Setter Scott Fifer had 40 assists for Lewis, coordinating an attack that hit .393 overall. Returning first team All-America Geoff Powell was held in check, hitting only .143 from the left side, but the rest of the Flyer offense was particularly accurate, hitting .571.

Stanford certainly felt the rust in its first real test of the season, but got better as the match wore on. The Card posted their best hitting percentage and fewest errors in the final set, hitting .333 with only 4 errors, compared to .222 and 13 errors in the first two sets. They had success attacking through the middle, where junior Conrad Kaminski had 8 kills to tie for the team lead with junior Alex Stephanus, with senior Spencer Haly tallying 6 kills while hitting a strong .500.

The opposite hitters also performed well. Stephanus looked comfortable in his second match as a starter, putting down 8 kills. Gabriel Vega, in his season debut after missing the contest against UC Santa Cruz, was effective off the bench. The junior opposite hit .500 with 3 kills as the right side quickly became one of the Cardinal’s primary points of attack.

“What [Vega] gives us is explosive ability, that instant burst and emotion,” said Stanford head coach John Kosty after the tournament.

James Shaw made a surprise debut in the match. The second team All-American assumed his starting setter role against the Flyers, grabbing 5 digs and dishing 38 assists to lead the team. The junior played parts of two sets, which is an encouraging sign for his recovery process.

“He played well tonight. He hasn’t played all fall, so he’s still a little rusty,” said Kosty.

Freshman Kyle Dagostino spelled Shaw the rest of the night, playing in all three sets and posting 38 assists. The offense ran smoothly through him, drawing praise from Kosty after the match: “Kyle has done a tremendous job for us, he’s an incredible team player. I think we’re in good hands either way [with James or Kyle].”

Defending NCAA champion Loyola showed no signs of slowing down on Saturday night. After rolling to a four-set win over BYU on Friday afternoon, the Ramblers handed Stanford a second loss in as many nights by a 3-0 margin. Also hailing from Chicago, Loyola never hit lower than .430 in any set and posted an impressive sideout rate of 78 percent.

The Ramblers were led by their preseason first team All-America pick, outside hitter Thomas Jaeschke. He hit an eye-popping .643, putting down 9 kills on 14 error-less swings to go with 7 digs in a dominant performance. Fellow outside and preseason second-team All-America Cody Caldwell had 10 kills. Nicholas Olson had 7 kills and 5 blocks from the middle blocker position, keying a fantastic defensive performance from the Ramblers. They held Stanford to a .164 hitting percentage and had 21 digs as a team.

Stanford showed signs of life early, hitting .368 in the first set. Cued by the serving of freshman Colin McCall, the Cardinal quelled an early Loyola run with one of their own to get within a point of the Ramblers at 13-12. After a Loyola timeout, the Ramblers put on a small spurt to get to 17-13 with four straight kills by Jaeschke. But the Cardinal never got closer than 2 points down the rest of the way.

The second set was tough on the home team. A combination of poor Cardinal passing and fantastic Loyola offense saw Stanford staring at a 9-2 deficit early on. Loyola would slowly widen the gap after that, using Caldwell’s 3 kills and Stanford’s seven hitting errors to push the gap to 22-10 before winning 25-13. The Card hit just .038 in the set — their worst offensive set all season — and secured sideouts on just 43 percent of opportunities.

Undeterred, Stanford came out in the third set with guns blazing. The home crowd awoke to cheer a serving run from senior outside Daniel Tublin, who pounded home an ace at 4-1. But Loyola would chip away at the lead, getting 2 kills from Caldwell to secure important sideouts at 4-2 and 6-5. Vega did his best to single-handedly stave off the Ramblers, getting 3 kills and a block to score four of the Cardinal’s first 11 points. His electricity brought the crowd to its feet with thunderous kills at 8-7, 10-8 and 11-9. But some precise hitting from Loyola was rewarded with their first lead at 13-12. The Card fought the Rambler momentum valiantly, but ultimately succumbed to errors the rest of the way. Loyola went on to a 25-18 win to end the tournament undefeated.

Sources of optimism abound despite the losses. Shaw played all three sets to completion, signaling further progress in his return to action. Vega was electric in the third set and hit .333 for the match to complement a second good match from Stephanus at the opposite hitter position. Kaminski managed 5 kills from the middle despite being commit-blocked for the majority of the match. Tublin had two aces against just one error in 9 attempts, showing off a potentially lethal weapon for which opponents will have to game-plan.

“Our serving game was good, and that’s why we were competitive,” said Kosty. “We served the ball well this weekend.”

Furthermore, the new starters gained valuable experience fighting against an NCAA title contender.

The Card will look to improve their pin offense and passing as the year goes on. The young outside hitters frequently fell victim to great defense by the Chicago schools.

“Our pin hitters will continue to get better,” said an unfazed Kosty. “They understand what they need to do.”

The growth will come as communication and trust build between the setter du jour, be it Shaw or Dagostino, and the hitters.

The passing game will try to develop into a team strength as well.

“Our passing game is up to standard, but we’ve got to get better,” said Kosty. “We need to be able to get the ball to Kyle or James and let them run the offense. Right now they’re running around a little bit too much. We’ve got to narrow in that focus.”

Overall, Kosty considered the weekend to be a success.

“All the guys on the team practiced against our elite team from last year,” he said Saturday night. “They understand what they need to do, but it’s a different story when you get on the court. That’s exactly what we wanted to get out of this weekend was to play some of the top teams in the country and to get our new starters an opportunity to play at a really high level.”

But Kosty realizes things aren’t perfect just yet, nor should they be.

“You can’t win a national championship in January,” he said. “We’ve got a long way to go. Loyola and Lewis put us in some tough situations, and we’re going to learn from them.”

Contact Kevin Bishop at kbishop ‘at’ stanford.edu.