No. 6 UC Irvine Drops A 3-2 Heartbreaker At Stanford
April 19, 2014 | Men's Volleyball
Palo Alto, Calif. – No. 6 UC Irvine fell in a heartbreaker to No. 3 Stanford 3-2 (28-30, 25-22, 25-15, 17-25, 15-13) in a MPSF quarterfinal match at Maples Pavilion Saturday.
Opposite Zack La Cavera led UCI (18-11) with 19 kills, which tied his career-high. Outside hitter Jeremy Dejno added 12 kills, while outside hitter Connor Hughes had eight kills, nine digs and five block assists. Middle blocker Scott Kevorken recorded seven kills and seven blocks and middle blocker Collin Mehring totaled seven kills and five total blocks. Libero Michael Brinkley topped the squad with 11 digs and setter Daniel Stork had 47 set assists and six digs.
The Anteaters bettered Stanford in blocks (13-10) and aces (7-6), but the Cardinal out-hit (.295-.271) and out-dug (47-35) UCI.
Stanford, who won their 12th straight match and improved to 21-7, were led by Brian Cook with 21 kills. Steven Irvin and Eric Mochalski each added 15 kills in the win.
In the first set, Stanford jumped out to a 4-1 lead but the Anteaters were able to catch the Cardinal at 6-6 on a Collin Mehring service ace. The Anteaters would open a 15-12 lead on a block by Scott Kevorken and Connor Hughes and would continue to lead 23-20. Stanford would use a UCI service error and back-to-back kills to tie the set at 23 all. A kill and ace by Zack La Cavera gave the Anteaters a 28-27 lead. An Anteater service error would follow then a kill by Mehring and a Stanford attack error would give UCI the set 30-28.
UCI tied the second set 21-21 on a Mehring kill, before the Cardinal scored three straight and four of the final five points to win the set 25-22. The Anteaters had five blocks in the set, but hit just .111.
Stanford controlled the third set winning 25-15. The Anteaters committed six consecutive errors to give the Cardinal a 17-6 cushion. Stanford hit .571, while UCI hit .120.
La Cavera dominated the fourth set with nine kills, two blocks and an ace as UCI won 25-17. The Anteaters hit .480 while holding the Cardinal to a .115 hitting mark.
A kill and solo block by Mehring was followed by a kill by La Cavera to give UCI a 6-3 lead in the final set. Stanford would go on a 5-1 run to take an 8-7 advantage. The teams would trade points until Stanford had back-to-back kills by Mochalski and Cook to push the margin to 11-9. Kills by La Cavera and Dejno tied the score at 11-11. UCI would score the next two, one an ace by Kyle Russell to go ahead 13-11. That would be the last time UCI would score as Stanford would record the final four points to take the set 15-13 and the match 3-2.
