GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Delano Thomas hit one past Stanford's Chris Ahfeldt last night. The Cardinal came from behind to beat the top-ranked Warriors in five games.
Stanford beats UH Stanford coach Don Shaw knew his team was due.
in 5
The Cardinal come from behind
to give the Warriors their first loss
of the seasonBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comThe 11th-ranked Cardinal have been on the short end of the stick in all of their five-game matches this season. Stanford dropped two heartbreakers against Brigham Young last weekend at home but finally managed to complete a comeback yesterday, upsetting top-ranked Hawaii 28-30, 25-30, 30-27, 30-27, 15-8.
Stanford picked up its first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation win and improves to 3-5 overall and 1-3 in conference play. A crowd of 5,303 at the Stan Sheriff Center watched the Warriors (5-1, 1-1) drop their first match of the year.
"Just to play well from start to finish and hang in there until it's over, that's nice," Shaw said. "Our emphasis this week was to focus on execution no matter what the situation is.
"I don't think we got caught up in who's ahead, who's behind. We just kept playing hard. We got the ball to bounce our way a couple of times and we did a better job of adjusting to some of the things they were doing. We forced them into some errors for a change."
Stanford got double-digit kill performances from All-American Curt Toppel (26 kills, .392), Paul Bocage (13 kills, .455) and Chris Ahlfeldt and Billy Strickland (11 kills apiece).
"We finally put things together. We started playing with more confidence," Toppel said. "We've always been in tight situations in the past. We've lost in all of them.
"We were definitely hungry to go into the fifth game. After we won the third and fourth games, we really felt like we couldn't do anything wrong."
Toppel shrugged off a slow start and put away six kills in the crucial fifth game. But the senior almost didn't play after Game 2 when he re-aggravated a pulled abdominal muscle. Shaw considered resting him but stuck with his go-to hitter.
"The guy's a player," Shaw said. "He wasn't going to let it stop him. We thought about a different lineup."
Stanford wasn't the only ailing team. Hawaii used two freshman starters in its lineup. Rookie Matt Motter received the starting nod over junior Jake Muise, while Pedro Azenha started for senior Eyal Zimet, who was bothered by lower back pain. Zimet suited up for the match as a backup libero but did not play.
Azenha pounded 25 kills to complement a 31-kill effort from senior All-American Costas Theocharidis. Junior Josh Stanhiser added 10 kills. The rest of the Warriors were mostly unheard from.
Defensively, Motter had a match-high 16 digs as Hawaii outdug Stanford 47-41, but that was the only category the Warriors were better in.
The match started beautifully for Hawaii. With Motter nailing passes and making nice digs, the Warriors had an easy 5-1 lead after two kills each from Theocharidis and Delano Thomas. But just as quickly, Stanford responded with a 6-2 run to cut its deficit to one. The Warriors pulled ahead 18-14 on a kill Azenha whipped off the block. The Cardinal caught and passed the Warriors for their first lead of the game at 22-21 after two Hawaii hitting errors. But kills by Thomas and Tony Ching helped Hawaii regain a 25-23 advantage. Hawaii clung to a two-point lead the rest of the way and held on for the win after a Toppel kill brought the Cardinal within one.
The Warriors weren't fabulous in Game 2, but were good enough. Hawaii outhit Stanford .289 to .189. Theocharidis unloaded seven kills and Azenha added five. As a team, the Cardinal struggled to put balls away and had half as many errors (seven) as kills (14). The Cardinal led by as many as four (12-8) but couldn't sustain any kind of momentum. They folded late in the game after Hawaii pulled ahead 24-22 on Theocharidis' 11th kill of the match.
The match took a turn for the sluggish in Game 3. Stanford took the early lead again and managed to hold on even when the Warriors scored three straight to even the game at 18. The Cardinal broke away from a 23-23 tie behind kills from Toppel and libero-turned-outside hitter David Vogel. Though Azenha continued to decimate the Stanford defense with his 15th and 16th kills of the match, Hawaii couldn't complete the comeback.
Defense on both sides of the net was in short supply in Game 4, with both teams hitting well. Hawaii outhit Stanford .405 to .394 but made costly errors late in the game. The Warriors lost concentration again when they blew a 24-21 lead. Stanford used an 8-1 run to take back control of the game and reach game point first. Ahlfeldt's 11th kill evened the match at 2.
The Cardinal had all the momentum going into Game 5. Stanford grabbed an 8-4 lead behind three kills by Toppel and cruised the rest of the way.
"Anytime you're up 2-0 and you lose Game 4, the momentum has got to be on the other side," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "That takes some real strong mental attitude of realizing it's a new game and we need a new start."
The Warriors tried for a different start with senior Brian Nordberg in the game. Wilton said Thomas was a "non-factor" in the match and benched him for Game 5. Nordberg, who is slowly recovering from shoulder surgery, didn't do much to slow the Cardinal and Thomas re-entered the game at the halfway point. By that time, Stanford had all the momentum after grabbing an 8-4 lead behind three kills by Toppel. The Cardinal cruised the rest of the way.
Hawaii faces No. 2 UC Irvine next weekend. The Anteaters have already moved the location of the match from cozy Crawford Hall to the larger Bren Events Center to accommodate a bigger crowd and a television broadcast.
Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs. Stanford def. Hawaii
28-30, 25-30, 30-27, 30-27, 15-8
CARDINAL (3-5, 1-3 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Bocage 5 13 3 22 .455 1 5 0 Ahlfeldt 5 11 1 23 .435 1 3 5 Curtis 2 7 4 18 .167 0 1 1 Strickland 5 11 3 27 .296 0 4 4 Toppel 5 26 6 51 .392 0 3 8 Hansen 5 2 0 6 .333 0 2 8 Vogel 5 4 2 9 .222 0 0 9 Sandman 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Strache 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Jacobs 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 Totals 5 74 19 156 .353 2 18 41 WARRIORS (5-1, 1-1 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Tuyay 5 6 0 6 1.000 1 4 8 Theocharidis 5 31 8 59 .390 1 2 6 Azenha 5 25 4 45 .467 0 0 7 Ching 5 7 9 23 -.087 0 1 10 Thomas 5 7 6 16 .062 1 7 0 Stanhiser 5 10 3 16 .438 0 0 0 Motter 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 16 Bender 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Nordberg 1 1 1 2 .000 0 0 0 Totals 5 87 31 167 .335 3 14 47
Aces -- Stanford (5): Ahlfeldt 2, Toppel 2, Hansen. Hawaii (2): Azenha, Thomas. Assists -- Stanford (70): Hansen 60, Strickland 5, Ahlfeldt 3, Toppel, Vogel. Hawaii (81): Tuyay 73, Motter 3, Ching 2, Theocharidis, Azenha, Thomas.
T -- 2:39. Officials -- Dan Hironaka, Wayne Lee. Attendance -- 5,668.
UH Athletics
