The No. 1 Stanford men’s volleyball team looks to extend its playoff run tonight when it plays host to No. 4 Hawaii (19-9, 14-8 MPSF) in the semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Tournament.
The Card (20-6, 16-6 MPSF) already braved its first postseason challenge last Saturday, knocking out a formidable opponent in the UC-Irvine Anteaters. The win marked the first postseason victory for the Cardinal since 1997, and the first playoff victory at Maples Pavilion since 1994.
But rather than bask in its success, the squad is keeping its focus on the match at hand.
“It was nice to win this last match against such a good team, however this was just a step in the right direction,” said senior opposite Evan Romero. “We can reflect on the [progress] we’ve made after the season, but for now, we are solely concentrating on the present and the next match against Hawaii.”
Although Stanford has faced — and swept — Hawaii twice this season already, the matches were the first two of the season and were played in January, over three months ago.
“I am excited to see what they will bring to the table,” said sophomore outside hitter Brad Lawson. “Their lineup hasn’t changed much since the last time we met, but there’s no doubt they have matured and progressed as a team and will be confident coming off of their close win against Pepperdine. It will be exciting for us and challenging as well to face UH when they’re playing at their peak.”
The Warriors’ season has been peppered with both wins and losses to teams across the rankings, including a 3-1 victory over then-top-ranked USC in January and a recent 3-0 loss to No. 9 UC-Santa Barbara.
Most recently, Hawaii took down Pepperdine — a team that has given Stanford some trouble this year —
in a thrilling five-set victory to advance in the MPSF tournament. Like Stanford, this was a long-awaited win; the Hawaii team hadn’t won a postseason match since 2003.
The Card will have to contain the Warriors’ standout freshman opposite Jonas Umlauft. Recently named the MPSF’s Freshman of the Year, Umlauft led the conference with a 5.29 kill average and has had 13 20-plus kill matches.
Two juniors, outside hitter Joshua Walker and setter Nejc Zemljak, also received postseason MPSF awards for their consistent play throughout the season; Walker just became the 12th player in UH history to record 1,000 career kills and Zemljak has 1,385 assists, the second-highest in the program’s history.
Although Stanford has won its last six matchups against Hawaii, the Warriors still have the overall edge. Currently, the series stands at 34-30.
Should Stanford win tonight’s match, the team will face the winner of the other semifinal match between No. 2 BYU and No. 3 Cal State Northridge in the MPSF Tournament finals on Saturday. The winner of the tournament is granted a berth to the four-team NCAA Tournament and a chance at a national title. Stanford has not won a national championship in men’s volleyball since 1997.
Even if the Card fails to win the MPSF Tournament, it still has a strong shot at a berth to the NCAAs due to its first-place finish in the regular season of the MPSF, the nation’s strongest conference by a long shot.
The only way for Stanford to be sure of a berth, though, is to keep winning, starting with tonight’s match against Hawaii.
“I think it’s natural for us to be nervous coming into the MPSF semifinal because none of us have played in such an important match before,” Lawson said, “but we’ve prepared and are ready to take on a tough UH opponent and more than anything we’re excited and anxious to play tomorrow.”
First serve will be at 7:30 p.m. at Maples Pavilion.