No. 6 Stanford men’s volleyball (8-2, 6-2 MPSF) will meet No. 4 Hawaii (9-2, 4-2) in back-to-back matches on Friday and Saturday in what will be the team’s second set of home matches this year.
This difficult set of upcoming matches comes after a rocky weekend that featured a 3-1 loss against No. 2 Long Beach State and a three-set win against No. 12 Cal State Northridge.
Hawaii also experienced a win and a loss over the weekend, both against then-No. 1 UCLA.
Both Hawaii and the Cardinal will be looking for a set of wins to help advance them in the MPSF standings. Stanford currently sits in third place, while Hawaii is in fifth.
The two teams share very similar statistics on paper, on both the attacking and defending sides. The Warriors have accumulated 515 kills and the Cardinal 505 — with the Cardinal having played one fewer game — and both teams boast nearly identical kill percentages (.332 and .333, respectively).
Both teams’ defenses have also performed similarly. Stanford’s defense has racked up 95 blocks, accomplishing 2.5 blocks per set. Hawaii, on the other hand, has made 86.5 blocks, earning them 2.3 blocks per set.
The Cardinal and the Warriors have also netted similar results in matches, with both teams losing to top-notch opponents. Stanford lost its two matches to then-No. 1 BYU and No. 2 Long Beach State, while Hawaii lost its two matches to now-No. 1 UCLA and No. 12 Pepperdine.
With the teams garnering such similar results during their last matches, it is no wonder that sophomore libero Evan Enriques said that the match will be “one of the biggest games of the year so far.”
Hawaii’s two main attackers, senior Sinisa Zarkovic and freshman Stijn van Tilburg, will be their two strongest weapons. Zarkovic has collected 169 kills and 59 digs and is fourth in the nation with 4.45 kills per set, while Tilburg has also contributed greatly to the team’s success with 155 kills, 55 digs and 27 blocks.
Stanford will have to pay special attention to these two players as well as a very cohesive unit overall from Hawaii — one that ranks second in the country in assists per set — and counteract their moves with a strong defensive line. The team has had success playing disciplined defense so far, with senior Madison Hayden tallying 56 digs and senior Gabriel Vega accumulating 55.
Senior Conrad Kaminski has also come in strong for the Cardinal, recording 54 total blocks along with a .452 hitting percentage. He also is fourth in the nation in blocks per set (1.42), while the team overall is ranked ninth in the same category. No Warrior has come even close to this number of blocks, highlighting what could be the Cardinal’s main advantage: their impeccable teamwork and strong team communication.
The Cardinal, though, will also have to clean up some technical errors that they have been struggling with all season.
“I think we have a lot of things that we can clean up with our ball control,” Enriques said. “Just being disciplined on our blocking and disciplined on our passing. Little aspects that kind of hurt us this past weekend, but stuff that we’ve been working on so far.”
If the Cardinal can overcome these challenges and become the cohesive unit that they have demonstrated they can be throughout the season, they have a shot at beating yet another strong team.
Stanford will take on No. 4 Hawaii on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. The first match will be played at Burnham Pavilion and the second at Maples Pavilion.
Contact Laura Sussman at laura111 ‘at’ stanford.edu.