BYU Cougars fall to Stanford Cardinal at home – Volleyball news
The men’s volleyball teams from Brigham Young University and Stanford University crossed their ways on Friday, February 3 at the Smith Fieldhouse arena in Provo, Utah.
Stanford Cardinal played under the tag of visiting team but stole the show from hosts. The BYU squad suffered the home loss in front of local supporters. The guest team clinched success by posting 3-1 (25-21, 20-25, 25-20, 20-18) on board. A crowd of 4,471
witnessed the cracking action of volleyball at the Smith Fieldhouse.
The No. 7 Stanford broke the six-match winning streak of No. 1 BYU. Success against Cougars improved the record of Stanford to 6-2 on the year, while BYU also shifted to 6-2 after loss.
The Cougars played without their key player, sophomore Taylor Sander, who stayed off the court due to his broken hand. Sander was replaced by Futi Tavana, who did not participate in the first seven matches of the year. The formula did not work and BYU had
to regret the loss of important match.
On the other hand, Cardinal’s Brian Cook and Steven Irvin played to their full potential and led their team to amazing win.
The home side was equipped with support of local fans but the Stanford players did not take any pressure and played in their usual style. They followed good attack and defence strategy and secured the first frame, 25-21.
Following the loss of first set, Cougars hit back aggressively and threw everything in attack. The Stanford competed well and offered strong resistance but could not overcome the opponent. The Cougars managed level the game score at 1-1 by claiming second
set, 25-20.
Erik Shoji, the libero of Stanford, displayed great effort in the second set but got injured. He was sent out of the court in third set. The Cardinal played with new libero in third set but still remained successful and won the set, 25-20.
Stanford carried the momentum into fourth set and seized match victory by winning last frame at 20-18.
The Head Coach of BYU, Chris McGown, acknowledged that Stanford put up a great effort and proved to be better. He praised their consistency in passing.
He said, “They have a lot of nice athletes on that team. They passed really well, were consistent all night long and were siding out at around 75 percent which is off the charts good.”
His counterpart, John Kosty of Stanford, said, “We played composed the whole match and fed off the crowd,” Kosty said. “It was a credit to the team and how they played on a big stage. And it showed that we have maturity even though we have a lot of sophomores.
We came out and played hard and played consistently. The bottom line is we did what we had to do. We played how Stanford volleyball can play.”
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