All three games were close affairs, but the Cardinal came out on top each time to send the Tritons to a seventh straight league defeat. Set scores were 25-22, 25-22 and 25-23. The first and third frames saw the score tied 16 and 10 times, respectively, with five lead changes each.

UCSD dropped to 4-10 overall and 2-8 in the MPSF. Stanford improved to 8-4 overall and 5-4 in league play.

Junior middle blocker Fred Stahl, a Bay Area native from Sunnyvale and Bellarmine College Prep whose father played football at Stanford from 1985-87, produced a team-high 10 kills for UCSD on .300 hitting (10-4-20), and added three blocks.

Junior setter Mike Brunsting finished with five kills on five swings, 26 assists, a match-high nine digs and two blocks. Nick Iorfino had seven kills and six digs, while senior libero Chase Frishman collected eight digs.

Brian Cook led the way for the Cardinal with a match-high 12 kills to go along with seven digs. Steven Irvin joined him in double-figure kills with 10. In his first collegiate start, freshman setter Joe Ctvrtlik turned in 33 assists and eight digs.

UCSD now returns home to the RIMAC Arena confines to host No. 15 UC Santa Barbara on Friday, Feb. 15, and top-ranked defending national champion UC Irvine on Saturday, Feb. 16. First serve for each match is set for 7 p.m.

Triton Notes: Stanford leads the all-time series between the teams, 40-3, with four straight wins ... With four more kills tonight, Carl Eberts increased his career total to 903, ninth-most in program history, as he vies to become just the fifth Triton ever to reach the 1,000-kill plateau ... Chase Frishman now has 554 digs for his career, fifth-most all-time at UCSD ... Fred Stahl's 10 kills and 11.5 points were both season highs ... Tonight marked the third double-digit kill performance of Stahl's career ... Freshman opposite Josh Lake contributed a season-high four digs off the bench.

-- UCSDtritons.com --