For as beat up as these two teams have been, in the standings by opposition and in BYU’s case literally (more on that in a second), this is still a matchup of national top-fives. It’s the first encounter between the two on the season, and I dare say it counts a little bit more for BYU than last night’s romp against Pacific. But BYU entered tonight’s match down a man, as star middle blocker Russ Lavaja re-aggravated his ankle injury while peppering between sets 2 and 3 in last night’s match. He didn’t play set 3 against the Tigers, and I have to admit I didn’t even notice that at the time. Lavaja did not dress for the match, sitting tonight on the BYU bench in street clothes.
Stanford have dominated the recent series between the two sides, winning six straight and all three matches last season, including in the MPSF tournament in a match that ended the Cougars’ season. The Cougars’ star high-flyer Taylor Sander thus entered tonight having never tasted victory against the Cardinal.
And Sander got the BYU offense underway right out of the chute. He claimed his first kill of the match much earlier tonight than last night, slamming home the first ball of the night (last night he didn’t get it until BYU’s 16th point). But Stanford then rattled off three in a row to go ahead, digging everything the Cougars sent their way (and there were some bombs). At 3-2, Stanford overpassed the BYU serve, but Devin Young was unable to take advantage, finding Stanford setter James Shaw waiting for him at the net. The Cougars’ subsequent hit went well wide. After Stanford went up three at 7-4, BYU got the sideout and then a bizarre point where Shaw seemed to set…well, nobody…brought BYU back within a point. On 9-8, Sander very nearly had a service ace, but the Cardinal kept the ball alive. BYU almost did, too, but Sander’s own desperate return shot went into the net. Sander leaping in from center-back knotted the set at 10, making it just well as a race to 15.
At 12-all, Shaw used all of his 6-foot-7 frame for a difficult dump shot. BYU libero Jaylen Reyes positioned himself well to field the ball, but he just mishandled it, as it rebounded off him and out. The Cardinal reached 15 first, at 15-13, with Shaw showing some ingenuity in his setting form to set the stage (pardon the pun) for a right-side kill from Steven Irvin. But BYU came back out of the timeout well, with Michael Hatch‘s big block, starting in place of Lavaja, bringing it back even again at 15-all. Ben Patch had a difficult first set, but he got his first kill to knot the set yet again at 18 on a deceptive roll shot. At the end of a long rally, Brian Cook‘s hitting error put BYU up a point, for the first time in a while, at 20-19, prompting Stanford’s timeout.
The Cardinal got the sideout after the timeout and the point on serve to go back up 21-20. BYU got the sideout on another Brian Cook hitting error, but he made up for it on the next ball with his fifth kill of the set to maintain Stanford’s slender lead. Stanford got an overpass at 22-21, but Irvin missed one of the easiest chances of the night, hitting the ball wide. Sander got his fifth kill, equal to his entire total last night, to bring the match even at 23, but his hitting error made it set point for the Cardinal at 24-23. I fully expected the set to go extra points even before this, but I certainly did at this point. Stanford had other ideas. A jump-float serve off Spencer Haly‘s hand befuddled Sander, rebounding off him and out for the ace, giving the Cardinal a sudden 25-23 first set win.
The set contained 14 ties and 9 lead changes. Stanford’s offensive execution was markedly better than BYU’s in the first set. The Cardinal had nearly double the Cougars’ total in digs.
The second set started off just as evenly as the first, but from 2-1 BYU rattled off four straight on Patch’s serve to go ahead by three. The run included Sander’s 200th kill for the season. At 6-4, the BYU defense nearly tracked down a well wayward ball, but the student section made contact with it before the libero Reyes could. Stanford drew even at 6 on the next rally when Tyler Heap, swapped in for Boyce in set 2, made just a pathetically low set that couldn’t bear a proper attack. At 7-7, Heap made another really low set (though the pass that time was not so good). That time, though, Sander redeemed him with a kill off the block. On the rally ending 8-all, Josue Rivera ran after another wayward ball, but it was immediately whistled dead when he tried to use a bench chair to boost himself. He didn’t like the call, and sort of gave the up referee the stink-eye. Stanford’s run extended to 10-8, at which point BYU called time.
The Cougars came out of the timeout strong, getting the sideout and then an ace for Sander to tie the set at 10. They very nearly took the lead as Sander’s next serve caused an overpass, but BYU were called for a net violation. At some point Boyce subbed back in for Heap, not too surprising as Heap wasn’t really getting it done. On and on the set wore even, making the ending to set 1 all the more significant. Stanford again reached 15 first, but BYU got there on the very next point. From 16-all, Stanford took the equal largest lead of the night for either team with three straight points, the last a smart play from Stanford’s lone senior Jake Kneller, to go up 19-16 at BYU’s timeout.
Play was briefly stopped following the first point after the timeout. The commentators were joking around a little (as commentators are wont to do), and they kind of missed why, speculating it was questions about the next rotation. As it happened, BYU got the point but were then called for an illegal substitution, an automatic loss of a point, to go from 19-16 to 20-17 in one rally. At 21-19, BYU somehow committed another illegal substitution, much to the chagrin of Cougars coach Chris McGown, making it 22-19 Cardinal. The Cougars responded to run back to 23-22, last on a Cardinal hitting error as their offense just badly broke down. They called time, but BYU kept the ball rolling coming back, as their right-side block landed in making it 23-all. Kneller was solo-blocked by Hatch to bring it to set point for BYU rather shockingly at 24-23. Stanford burned their last timeout there, but the Cougars finished off the run to complete the turnaround and even the match 25-23 in the 2nd.
At halftime, a sideline reporter caught up with Coach McGown, who was surprisingly frank about the illegal substitution calls. He basically took total blame for them. He explained that BYU like to sub in Steve Rindfleisch for Ryan Boyce in a blocking rotation at a strategic point in a set, and that’s what they tried to do. The problem is Boyce was himself a sub in this set, since Tyler Heap had started at setter. That meant that the only man who could come in for Boyce would be Heap (which would then make Boyce ineligible to return in the remainder of the set). The BYU coaches had evidently simply forgotten that Heap started the set, which was what led to the chain of events giving Stanford 2 free points. It’s a small miracle BYU held on to win.
By the way — if you’re mostly familiar with NCAA women’s volleyball, that explanation probably makes no sense to you. This is one of the major differences between NCAA volleyball on the men’s and women’s sides. There’s only 6 subs per set in the men’s game as opposed to 15 for the women. Further, a sub can only enter the set once and can only be subbed back out for the man he went in for in the first place (somewhat similar to libero substitutions). In the women’s game, a sub can enter and exit the set as many times as the team’s quota of total subs for the set will allow, and she can be replaced by anyone. Six subs is the rule at the international level on both the men’s and women’s sides. The term “six-rotation player” is used as a bit of a superlative in NCAA women’s volleyball, but basically everyone is a six-rotation player in NCAA men’s volleyball and in the international game. It also gives greater significance to the starting lineups. Frankly I can see the arguments for both systems, but the argument for introducing the international rules to NCAA women’s play seems to be predicated on nothing more than matching the international game.
Each side came up with 16 kills in the set, and both hit at very high efficiency. BYU had no blocks in the set until their final three points, three straight blocks to cap off the run that evened the match.
Stanford took the first two points of set 3, and it was a long stretch of sideout volleyball to follow. A Hatch/Young double block got BYU the point on serve to draw even, at 7-all. On and on it went sideout after sideout, until the Cardinal edged ahead at 14-12 with a Taylor Sander hitting error on a crosscourt shot. The Cougars curiously called time there, even though there would have been a media timeout at 15 had a charged timeout not occurred beforehand. BYU drew even at 15 after the match’s longest rally, with Rivera coming up with a great one-handed dig to unexpectedly keep a ball alive, putting a charge in the crowd. Stanford re-established their 2-point lead at 17-15 after another impressively long rally, finished by Kneller’s right-side kill, but BYU again drew it even at 17’s, following Hatch’s middle block. They then took their first lead of the set at 18-17 on the next ball, prompting Stanford’s timeout.
The Cardinal quickly ran back ahead to 20-19 coming out of the timeout, and Cook (backbone of the offense) with his 18th kill of the night made it 21-19 at BYU’s timeout. That prompted the Cougars’ final timeout. Stanford’s hit on 21-20 was very close to the line, and ruled in to maintain their 2-point advantage. Cook came up big, leading a huge double block against Sander to make it set point at 24-21. And then the set ended pretty much exactly like set 1 did, as a jump-float serve, this time off Shaw’s hand, completely baffled Sander for the ace, putting the Cardinal up 2-1. Those were the only aces of the match for the Cardinal.
The third set was statistically pretty even, with BYU holding the advantage in blocking, but Stanford just managed to pull away at the end.
In the 4th, the Cougars took the first 2-point edge at 5-3 after yet another solid stretch of sideouts. The rally ending 5-3 was the first time all night that the Cougars had been able to dig Shaw’s dunk attempt. BYU added another point on a joust to go up 6-3, about as large a lead as they had had all night. Stanford chipped into the deficit from 8-5, with Eric Mochalski finding the block against Devin Young to draw the Cardinal within a point at 8-7. Patch’s 17th kill, showing him to be playing a much more well-rounded game than earlier in the season, got the Cougars the sideout. The Cardinal tied the set at 9, but the Cougars went back ahead at 13-11. Sander’s big ace brought it to the media timeout at 15-12 — the largest lead the Cougars had yet had at any point in the match.
Stanford took one of the…maybe not best rallies, but certainly most impressive kills of the match coming back from the timeout. Shaw came up with just a perfect set despite having exactly no time to ready for it, and Irvin found the floor for his 20th kill of the night. But BYU were undeterred, surging ahead 17-13 at Stanford’s charged timeout. It was a sustained stretch of sideouts to 20-16 leading to Stanford’s final timeout. The Cardinal got back-to-back blocks to close to 20-18 at BYU’s timeout. Another big block for the Cardinal cut it to a single point deficit for them at 21-20. That kind of surprisingly got the crowd into it, and on the next rally Stanford were called for a net fault to make it 22-20 Cougars. Sander rotated to the service line, put just a little pace on it, and elicited an overpass from the Cardinal side that Ben Patch just obliterated for his career-high 20th kill. A Stanford service error brought it to 24-21 set point for BYU. The Cougars converted their first opportunity, making for the always-exciting race to 15.
BYU hit nearly .600 in the fourth set, on 18 kills. Stanford hit a still-pretty-good .368, but holy crap, when you hit .580-something, you’re gonna win.
Stanford won the coin toss, sending Rivera to the service line to the start the decider. Irvin and Boyce nearly collided with each other on the first ball, a hitting error for Irvin. BYU took the first 2-point lead at 3-1 with a left-side kill, but Young’s service error got the Cardinal the sideout. Irvin’s 20th kill of the night knotted the set at 3. Sander’s third ace of the match put BYU back up two at 6-4. The Cougars kept it sideout volleyball to the side change at 8-6, with a huge kill from center-back by Sander (who in fact took the serve…beach-esque).
The first rally after the side change was another long one, with great defense on both sides. It finally ended with a kill from Mochalski to close the Cardinal to within 8-7. At 9-7, BYU properly subbed Rindfleisch (affectionately nicknamed “Beef Meat” – the literal English translation of his name) in for Boyce, but it didn’t really matter as Rivera’s serve went straight into the net. Cook got a kill from the left side, off the block and out, to knot it at 9’s, prompting BYU’s timeout. Stanford made it to 10 first on yet another long rally, despite BYU receiving multiple free balls during the rally. Patch brought the set even on the next ball, with fire, making it 10-10. Sander’s emphatic kill brought it to 11-10 BYU, at Stanford’s timeout.
Young’s serve coming back yielded an easy overpass for Sander to gobble up, putting BYU up 12-10, and Stanford quickly called their last timeout. Young’s next serve very nearly yielded another overpass, but Shaw was able to save it and set Irvin’s kill to make it 12-11. Patch then got the sideout, his 25th kill of the match, to put BYU two points from victory. The next rally was long, the ball landing out with no touch called to make it 13-12 BYU. Stanford’s right-side hit was called wide with no touch at 13-12. Stanford coach John Kosty and floor captain Brian Cook conferenced with the officials to protest that a net violation should have been called, but they didn’t change the call. Replays showed that they should have, as Patch grazed the antenna with his fingers. Kind of a shame that a missed call would play any kind of a role in such a tight and exciting match as this one. Cook staved off the first match point to make it 14-13, but Patch then sent the fans home happy, capping off his big career night.
#2 BYU d. #5 Stanford (23-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-21, 15-13)
Whew. That was everything we could have asked for and then some. It’s sort of surprising that none of the sets went extra points, given how ridiculously even the match was (total points on the night — BYU 109, Stanford 107). Stanford just weren’t quite able to get over the hump, which I’d say makes this match something of a microcosm of their entire season. If they can catch fire come MPSF tournament time, they may still have a shot to play for the national championship this year, but I truly believe the best for them lies yet ahead.
All four principal pin hitters in this match — Sander, Patch, Cook, and Irvin — were better than 20 kills for the night.
BYU have to be very happy to get a win, and against such a quality opponent, with Lavaja out. You can’t really fault the play of Hatch and Young tonight at all, but Lavaja’s a game-changer, and to come up with a big W with him on the bench in street clothes has to buoy the Cougars’ confidence. Their setter issues remain intriguing, as Heap performed pretty poorly in his stint at the start of set 2 tonight, but Boyce continued to get banged around at the net. Chances are they both continue to see playing time, though Boyce is undoubtedly the top man at that position. Here’s hoping for BYU’s sake that the coaching staff remember the substitution rules, as that very nearly cost them the second set and could easily have resulted in Stanford taking this one tonight in a sweep.
Relatively quick turnaround for Stanford, as their next match is Monday at California Baptist. Then they return home for matches Saturday and Sunday, giving them three between national poll dates, those contests with Pepperdine and USC respectively. For the Cougars, it’s on the road again, as next Friday is the massively important rematch with UC Irvine (no reason to think it won’t be #1 vs. #2) and then a match on Saturday that they really need to bank on winning, against UCSD.
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