On Thursday and Friday night, No. 8 Stanford men’s volleyball (4-2, 1-0 MPSF) will take on USC (2-5, 1-3) and Cal Baptist (2-5, 1-3) in Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal are coming off a bounce-back win against Pepperdine in their conference opener last weekend.

USC opened its season with a win against Concordia before dropping its next two matches, including one against top-ranked Ohio State. However, the Trojans were able to pull off a statement win over then-No. 3 Long Beach State in their conference opener. USC has performed better than its record suggests, but the Cardinal swept the Trojans in both of their matchups last season.

Despite the identical records, Cal Baptist’s season did not begin as auspiciously as USC’s as the Lancers fell to both Concordia and LBSU and were swept by their last two opponents, No. 2 UCLA and then-No. 12 UC Santa Barbara.

Offensively, Stanford will look to sophomore outside hitter Jordan Ewert, who leads the team with 77 kills on the season. Junior libero Evan Enriques will manage the Cardinal defense, as he paces the team with 2.05 digs per set.

Thursday’s match will be broadcasted on Pac-12 Bay Area and Pac-12 Los Angeles, and Friday’s will be streamed live on Pac-12.com. First serve for both matches is at 7 p.m.

Contact Olivia Hummer at ohummer ‘at’ stanford.edu.