Stanford’s men’s volleyball team embarked on their biannual trip to Hawaii on Thursday but left Sunday night with a sour taste in the mouth after going winless in two matches against the University of Hawaii. Stanford lost 25-17, 25-22, 26-24 on Friday night and was thoroughly beaten 25-16, 25-12, 25-17 the following night at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.
Hawaii maintains a unique place in the MPSF structure. The conference schedule for every team includes two matches per season against each conference opponent, one home and one away. However, exceptions are made in the case of Hawaii, who has onerous travel requirements and no natural geographic travel partners — for instance, USC and UCLA travel together. Consequently, Hawaii plays home doubleheaders against half the MPSF teams and away doubleheaders against the other half each season, switching venues every year. BYU is the only other MPSF school with such an arrangement, which is why they played back-to-back matches against the Cardinal on March 6 and 7.
Stanford proved a tough test for the No. 1 Rainbow Warriors in match one. Hawaii couldn’t create separation in Set 1 until ripping off 4 straight points to take a 16-10 lead. Redshirt senior Taylor Averill keyed the Rainbow Warriors’ run, posting a kill and a block. Stanford fought to keep the game close, but 4 more Hawaii points from 20-15 to 24-15 effectively finished the set, and Hawaii finished a 25-17 set with a Sinisa Zarkovic kill.
The Cardinal kept the second set extremely close, posting a tie as late as 10-10 and found themselves down only 2 at 19-17 after a triple block by seniors Daniel Tublin, Spencer Haly and Sean Kemper. But Hawaii forced a Stanford timeout after 3 straight kills, 2 by senior opposite Brook Sedore. Sown 22-17, Stanford kept the gap within 5. But the Cardinal never got closer and lost 25-22. Junior opposite hitter and Hawaii native Gabriel Vega had 5 kills for the Cardinal in the set, while junior outside Madison Hayden had 3 kills and Tublin had 2 of his own.
Set Three was heartbreaking for the Cardinal. After falling behind 21-16 late on, Stanford would rip off 8 of the next 9 points, spanning two Hawaii timeouts. Vega had 2 kills and a block, with his family in attendance, to put Stanford within a point of the set. But he and Tublin hit into blocks on 3 of the last 4 points to give Hawaii a 26-24 win to clinch the match.
Stanford was in the match despite hitting .128 as a team and losing the blocking battle 15.5 to 5.5. Vega had 14 kills and Hayden had 10 to lead the line for the Cardinal.
The second match was all Hawaii. They jumped out to a 20-11 lead in the first set and never looked back, winning 25-16 with the help of 6 team blocks and 4 other Stanford hitting errors.
Set Two was even more lopsided. Hawaii scored 19 of the first 27 points, and Stanford could only string together consecutive points once in that stretch. Five Hawaii blocks were critical, as the Rainbow Warriors dominated the net against the Stanford front line of Hayden, Vega, Tublin and junior Conrad Kaminski. Hawaii won 25-12, holding the Card to their lowest set score of the season.
Set Three was nearly a foregone conclusion. Stanford saw its deficit slowly grow from 8-5 to 15-9 to 23-15, as Hawaii countered every Stanford point with 2 of their own. The final 25-17 scoreline ended Stanford’s road trip.
Stanford saw six of its hitters post negative percentages, and the team hit a season-low .033 from the field. The lone bright spot was Madison Hayden, who posted 12 kills.
Despite the losses, the team still controls its own destiny in the race for the MPSF playoffs. They sit a half-game back of UCLA, who hold the eighth and final playoff berth at the close of the weekend. The Bruins come to Maples Pavilion on Friday, and a Cardinal win there combined with a defeat of UCSB the following night would send Stanford to the playoffs.
Contact Kevin Bishop at kbishop ‘at’ stanford.edu.