No. 2 Cougars Sweep No. 5 Stanford For Second Straight Night

STANFORD -- For the second night in a row, the No. 2 BYU men's volleyball team defeated No. 5 Stanford in three consecutive games, 30-25, 30-22, 30-25 at the Maples Pavilion on Tuesday night.

BYU, (18-3 overall, 12-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation), dominated Stanford (11-7, 7-6) in blocks and hitting percentage, much like Monday night. The Cougars out-blocked the Cardinal, 17-5, with a hitting percentage of nearly 50 percent compared to under 20 percent for Stanford.

BYU, who prevailed on Monday night, 30-28, 30-25, 30-23, took control of the first game by going on a 5-1 run that turned a 10-10 tie into a 16-11 lead. The Cougars pushed the lead to as many as seven, and held off a late Cardinal rally that cut the deficit to 28-24. BYU never trailed in game two after jumping out to a 10-7 lead. In game three, Stanford took the early lead, but the Cougars came back from a 19-18 deficit to take 22-19 lead before taking the game and the victory.

Junior Mike Wall led the Cougars in kills with 13. He also added seven digs and five blocks. Freshman Jonathan Alleman had a double-double with 12 digs and 10 kills, while senior Scott Bunker had 11 blocks and eight kills. Junior Joaquin Acosta had 11 kills and nine blocks.

Sophomore Curt Toppel led the Cardinal with 16 kills, while sophomores William Curtis and Billy Strickland added eight kills each.

BYU dropped in the most recent rankings from No. 1 to No. 2 after losing last week to Pacific. Hawai'i took over the No. 1 spot. The next match for BYU will be with No. 1 Hawai'i on April 13 and 14 in Provo.