Match Stats
- #9 Stanford defeats UC San Diego in 3 games (25-15, 25-22, 28-26)
- Stanford moves up to 13-12 (8-10 MPSF) and UC San Diego drops to 7-19 (3-15 MPSF)
- RIMAC Arena La Jolla, CA
- Attendance: 589
- Match Stats
Stanford has secured #7 in the MPSF Tournament coming up next week and UC San Diego will join the newly developed Big West Conference next January.
Stanford’s Kevin Rakestraw had a season-high of 12 kills hitting .750, 3 blocks, and 2 aces. Gabriel Vega led the team with 16 kills as well as 7 digs, 2 blocks, and 1 ace.
Josh Schmidt led UC San Diego with his season-high and team-high of 8 kills. Bryan Zhu totaled 6 kills and Milosh Stojcic had 61 assists.
Press Releases
Courtesy of: Stanford Athletics
LA JOLLA, Calif. – Consecutive kills by Kevin Rakestraw sealed the win for No. 9 Stanford 25-15, 25-22, 28-26 at UC San Diego, Saturday, in the MPSF finale for both schools at RIMAC Arena.
Stanford closes out the regular season at 13-12 overall and 8-10 in the MPSF, earning the No. 7 seed for the conference tournament. The Cardinal will travel to No. 2 seed BYU on Saturday, April 15 for an MPSF quarterfinal match to begin the postseason.
Rakestraw hit a season-high .750 with 12 kills on 16 errorless swings. He also notched three blocks and two aces in the win for the Cardinal.
Redshirt senior Gabriel Vega led all players with 16 kills to go with seven digs, two blocks and an ace. Redshirt junior Colin McCall added nine kills on .333 hitting and Clay Jones finished with six kills and seven digs. Freshman middle blocker Jacob Thoenen chipped in with four kills and two aces.
UC San Diego (7-19, 3-15 MPSF) was playing without junior opposite Tanner Syftestad, who leads the Tritons in kills, aces and points this season, who was injured in Friday’s match against Pepperdine.
Freshman setter Paul Bischoff controlled the Cardinal offense, which hit .344, with 44 assists. He also collected eight digs, finishing two shy of a fourth double-double. Junior libero Evan Enriques also recorded eight digs in the match, while junior Kyle Dagostino had four.
Josh Schmidt led UCSD with eight kills on .412 hitting, while Ian Colbert and Bryan Zhu posted six kills each. It was the second time in a week the Cardinal earned a win over the Tritons, sweeping the season series.
Courtesy of: UC San Diego Athletics
LA JOLLA, Calif. – The University of California San Diego extended the third set but was unable to force a fourth and fell to No. 9 Stanford University, 3-0, in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) men’s volleyball action on Senior Night Saturday at RIMAC Arena. Scores were 25-15, 25-22 and 28-26.
UCSD dropped to 7-19 overall and finished with a 3-15 mark in the MPSF. Stanford improved to 13-12 overall and 8-10 in league play. The Cardinal had clinched an MPSF Tournament berth with a five-set victory over the Tritons in this season’s first meeting in the Bay Area exactly one week ago. As the No. 7 seed, they will play an MPSF quarterfinal at second-seeded BYU next Saturday, April 15.
Fourth-year Tritons Shayne Beamer and tri-captains Ian Colbert and Calvin Manchenko, and second-year transfer Josh Schmidt, were recognized prior to the first serve. The match also marked the final contest of UCSD’s 25-year MPSF history. The Tritons join the newly-formed Big West Conference as an associate member next January.
Junior opposite and tri-captain Tanner Syftestad, UCSD’s kill leader, was absent after exiting Friday night’s 3-1 defeat to No. 8 Pepperdine late in game three due to an unspecified injury.
In his absence, Schmidt provided a team- and season-high eight kills off the bench. He himself had missed the date with Pepperdine, and in fact had not seen action since March 17 as the primary libero, entering tonight with a solitary kill for 2017. Schmidt hit .412 with just one error on 17 swings. Colbert and redshirt junior middle blocker Bryan Zhu (San Diego/Rancho Bernardo HS) added six kills apiece.
Set three featured 11 tie scores and a pair of lead changes. The Tritons saved three match points, but could not prolong matters any further.
The opening stanza was virtually all Stanford after UCSD notched the initial tally on a Beamer kill, as the visitors surged ahead 7-2 and 13-4 around Triton timeouts.
The Cardinal then tallied the first three points of game two and were up 11-6 by the first break as the Tritons again called for time. UCSD actually managed to pull even once at 14-14, but Stanford got four of the next five.
UCSD trailed for much of the third set, by as many as six at 14-8. The Tritons began to chip away, and to their credit, levelled the score for the first time since 1-1, at 17-17, after a Schmidt kill and Clay Jones attack error. From there, the game was tied 18-18, 19-19, 20-20, 21-21, 22-22, 23-23, 24-24, 25-25 and 26-26. In between, UCSD took its first and only lead of the frame at 23-22 on a Schmidt kill, forcing Stanford’s only timeout of the evening. The Cardinal responded with the next two points After the Tritons’ final timeout, they turned away three match points before back-to-back Kevin Rakestraw kills ended it.
Rakestraw was a force, with 12 kills on 16 attempts without an error (.750), to go along with two aces and three blocks. Gabriel Vega led all players with his 16 kills.
Beamer wound up with five kills, two block assists and an ace in his final match inside RIMAC Arena. Colbert had four digs and a block assist on top of his kill total. In a fourth straight start at outside hitter, Manchenko had two kills, two digs and UCSD’s lone solo block, that on Vega midway through the third. Schmidt also collected four digs and a career-best three total blocks to share the match high.
UC San Diego concludes the 2017 campaign in Riverside this Wednesday, April 12. The non-conference meeting with rival California Baptist is slated for a 7 p.m. start inside Van Dyne Gym.
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