Last night, the Stanford men’s volleyball team had its final tune-up before the regular season begins, hosting a team of past men’s volleyball players in an alumni match at Maples Pavilion. The alumni team showed up to play and gave the varsity starters three close sets, although the current team came out on top. In the fourth set, the alumni, including 2009 graduate Jarod Keller at libero, 1985 All-American Craig Lauchner and three-time All-American Dan Hanan (1988-1990), added current player Gus Ellis and beat the Stanford second team.
The Cardinal, which is ranked No. 3 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association preseason poll, starts the season Friday, Jan. 15 against No. 12 Hawaii. Stanford, which had an excellent fall season, looks to kick its season off the right way, while Hawaii is looking for another upset to add to its victory last week over No. 1 USC in the championship of the Outrigger Hotels Invitational. Stanford is led by senior Evan Romero, Stanford’s career leader in kills with 1,295, along with returning All-American brothers Kawika and Erik Shoji. Senior setter Kawika recorded 1,394 assists last season to facilitate the offense, while sophomore libero Erik helped anchor the team’s defense with 447 digs.
The match against Hawaii begins 7 p.m. on Friday in Maples Pavilion.