Better wasn't good enough last night.

No. 8 Hawaii played a better match in its second road contest with No. 3 Stanford, but the visiting Warriors volleyball team walked out of Maples Pavilion with the same result: a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation loss.

Senior opposite Evan Romero put down 14 kills and junior hitter Spencer McLachlin added 13 as the Cardinal swept the Warriors for the second time in as many nights, 30-23, 30-26, 30-19. Sophomore hitter Brad Lawson added 11 kills, with two of Stanford's three aces in the 94-minute victory.

Hawaii (2-3, 0-2 MPSF) got 11 kills from both junior hitter Joshua Walker and freshman opposite Jonas Umlauft. The Warriors remain on the road and travel to Pacific (4-2, 0-2) for matches Tuesday and Wednesday; the Tigers were swept twice at BYU this week.

UH coach Charlie Wade said his team will need to be more disciplined on defense if the Warriors want to pick up their first league win Tuesday.

“;Our block was a little better tonight,”; Wade said. “;Maybe we didn't get the stuff blocks, but we touched way more balls tonight, slowed it down.

“;I told my team that for a significant part of the match, they looked like the same team we've been coaching the past few months. We competed well for the second half of the first (set), for most of the second and for parts of the third. We hit .464 in the second, but didn't win. We were right there with them, but we couldn't sustain our runs.”;

It's something that Stanford was able to do in gaining separation in every set. McLachlin (Punahou '07) had three straight kills in Set 1 as the Cardinal took the lead for good at 3-0.

The Warriors made a late charge, pulling to within 27-21 on an ace by Walker. But inconsistent serving continued to plague Hawaii, with Walker following his ace—the first for UH in two matches—with one of the team's 17 serving errors.

Leads were rare for the Warriors against the Cardinal, and they took their only two of the night early in Set 2, at 1-0 and 3-2. Hawaii managed to stay close, tying it seven times, the last at 14-14, but could never go ahead.

With Stanford leading 19-18, McLachlin put down a kill and added an ace in a 3-0 run that turned the momentum. The Warriors got to within 26-24, but a dump set by senior setter Kawika Shoji helped pushed the Cardinal's cushion to 28-24; the teams traded points, with Garrett Werner's kill giving Stanford a 2-0 lead.

Hawaii stayed close early in Set 3. A kill by Steven Hunt tied it for what would be the last time at 5-5, and Stanford used a 3-0 serving run by Romero to take control at 16-9.

Walker's second ace closed the gap to 16-11, but the Warriors never got closer than five the rest of the way.

“;We know Hawaii is a legit team,”; McLachlin said. “;They play with a lot of energy and we tried to match it. We've been itching to play another team and we always have great matches with Hawaii. We aren't taking anyone lightly.

“;Our serving was unbelievable this week (13 combined aces). If we can keep it up, it's going to be a good season.”;

Wade credited Stanford's ball control for much of the Cardinal's success.

“;I was really impressed with Spencer tonight,”; Wade said. “;And Brad and Kawika and Erik. ... They're all really good players. We've seen some of the best players from Hawaii playing against us the past three matches.”;

Stanford has seven players from the islands, four of them starting in McLachlin, Kawika Shoji ('Iolani '06), Lawson ( 'Iolani '08) and Erik Shoji (Punahou '08). Erik Shoji anchored the Cardinal defense with 14 digs.