LA JOLLA, Calif. - The 14th-ranked UC San Diego men's volleyball team (5-12, 2-10 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) heads to northern California this week to take on No. 2 Stanford (10-4, 8-4 MPSF) and Pacific (6-12, 0-12 MPSF). The Tritons take on the Cardinal at 7:00 p.m. on Friday night in Palo Alto and return to the court on Saturday night with an 8:00 p.m. first serve against the Tigers in Stockton. With 10 conference matches remaining, the Tritons are just 4.5 games behind 8th-place, the final MPSF postseason tournament spot. Only two games separate first place from eighth place in the conference standings.
Stanford enters the week having won seven of its last eight matches, including a sweep against UC Santa Cruz and a 3-1 victory at Pacific last week. Stanford's conference losses have come against BYU, UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Northridge and Pepperdine.
Stanford is led by Brad Lawson with 5.31 kills per set and Evan Romero with 4.35 kills per set. Lawson also has a team-high 23 service aces. Erik Shoji has a team-high 3.47 digs per set while Kawika Shoji averages 14.23 assists per set. Gus Ellis averages a team best 1.37 blocks per set.
UCSD's last win against Stanford came on April 14, 2006. Stanford leads the all-time series 34-2.
The Tritons are 4-29 all-time against Pacific, having won the last four meetings, including two sweeps during the 2009 season. The Tigers are winless in MPSF action nearly getting their first win conference win on February 19, losing in five at USC. Last week the Tigers dropped a 30-24, 28-30, 30-16, 31-29 decision to Stanford.
Taylor Hughes leads Pacific with 3.95 kills per set while Florian Gornik adds 3.17 kills per set. Patrick Tunnell and Kevin Downing have both seen action at setter and Mark Bauhs leads the team with 2.70 digs per set. Sean Daley has a team-high 1.10 blocks per set.
Last week the Tritons swept No. 3 UCLA 30-22, 30-25, 30-26 as UCSD outhit the Bruins .427 - .260. Frank Fritsch led the way with 16 kills while Joel Davidson added 12 kills.
Against UC Irvine, the Tritons got off to a slow start in a 30-15, 30-25, 29-31, 30-23 loss to the Anteaters. Davidson led the Tritons with 19 kills while Jason Spangler added 14 kills.
UCSD has a balanced offense with Fritch averaging 3.57 kills per set, Spangler at 3.25 kills per set and Davidson at 3.19 kills per set. Calvin Ross, Cyrus Kiani and Adrian Guthals have all seen action at middle blocker this season, with each hitting over .400. Phil Bannan leads the Tritons with 12.53 assists per set and Chase Frishman has a team-high 1.90 digs per set.
After this week the Tritons make a trip to Romeoville, Illinois to take on No. 15 Lewis on March 12-13.
