Stanford Wins Regular Season, Earns No. 1 Seed
April 19, 2010
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STANFORD (16-6 MPSF, 19-6 overall) won its first MPSF regular season championship since 1997, and secured the conference tournament's No. 1 seed by virtue of winning the fifth set at UC Irvine last Saturday. The Cardinal will never have to leave campus in this year's postseason, first hosting the No. 8 seed Anteaters in the MPSF quarterfinals Saturday (Apr. 24). Setter Kawika Shoji has led the nation's most prolific offense in 2010 with a .350 team attack.
BYU (15-7 MPSF, 21-8 overall) finished the schedule with a 1-1 split vs. CS Northridge and earning the No. 2 seed on sets over the Matadors, 5-3 in the series. The Cougars host No. 7 UCLA in the quarterfinals Saturday, taking two of three against the Bruins in January. BYU had the best team block (3.78 B/S) and overall defense during the season, holding opponents to .250 hitting. Futi Tavana (1.78 B/S) and Russell Lavaja (1.55 B/S) were the top blockers in the MPSF.
CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE (15-7 MPSF, 21-8 overall) split two matches at BYU last weekend and earned the No. 3 seed, hosting No. 6 USC Saturday. The Matadors enter this postseason meeting on a 17-match overall win streak over the Trojans dating back to 2003. Northridge has two of the top-four middle hitters in the conference with Kevin McKniff (.466) and Jacek Ratajczak (.454), while setter Jeff Stork leads a .292 team clip.
HAWAII (14-8 MPSF, 18-9 overall) won 3-0 at UC Santa Barbara in the season finale to help seal the quarterfinal home court and No. 4 seed. The Warriors host No. 5 seed Pepperdine Saturday, going 1-1 in Malibu this year in a pair of 3-0 matches. Freshman Jonas Umlauft was the kill (5.30 K/S) and point-leader (5.94 P/S) in the conference in 2010, while junior setter Nejc Zemljak served 30 MPSF aces and guided a .287 team attack.
PEPPERDINE (14-8 MPSF, 16-9 overall) settled for the No. 5 seed and a trip to Honolulu by splitting a pair of 3-2 matches on the final weekend, fighting off three match points and two sets down at Long Beach before losing at UCSD. Kasey Crider led the conference this year with 14.56 assists per set, leading the Waves to a .339 overall attack, while Tyler Jaynes finished within the top-five in hitting (.442) and blocking (1.55 B/S).
USC (13-9 MPSF, 16-10 overall) won 3-2 at UC San Diego and 3-0 at Long Beach State last weekend and is seeded sixth, visiting No. 3 CS Northridge in the quarterfinals Saturday. The defending MPSF Tournament Champions are led by Murphy Troy's 4.72 kill average and Hunter Current's 1.21 block average, both ranking fifth this year in MPSF action.
UCLA (11-11 MPSF, 16-13 overall) hit .900 (9-0-10) in set five to upset top-ranked Stanford last Friday and ultimately received the seven seed. The Bruins travel to No. 2 BYU to begin the postseason, splitting in Westwood, Jan. 29-30. Garrett Muagututia recorded 4.07 kills per set in the conference this year, while setter Kevin Ker fired off 32 aces.
UC IRVINE (10-12 MPSF, 15-14 overall) is seeded eighth and travels to regular season champion Stanford for the quarterfinals. The Anteaters split at home to end the schedule, 3-0 over Pacific and a 3-2 loss to the Cardinal. Carson Clark is one of three players in the MPSF with better than five kills per set (5.05), while serving a high of 40 aces.
UC SANTA BARBARA (9-13 MPSF, 13-16 overall) came within one win of returning to the postseason, but finished with a home split against Hawaii. The Gaucho attack was led all year by Jeff Menzel, ranking second in the MPSF with 5.12 kills and 5.87 points per set. Setter Vince Devaney was third in conference assists with a 13.41 average.
LONG BEACH STATE (8-14 MPSF, 12-17 overall) dropped home matches to Pepperdine 3-2 and USC 3-0 to end the year. Antwain Aguillard led the MPSF with a .487 middle attack in conference matches, while Dean Bittner led the team with 4.65 kills per set, ranking sixth. Dan Alexander served 37 aces, just three from the conference lead.
UC SAN DIEGO (6-16 MPSF, 11-19 overall) ended its year with a second win over Pepperdine, a program first, on the heels of defeating UCLA twice for the first time ever. Frank Fritsch, the Tritons' leading attacker of 3.78 kills per set this year, slammed 25 kills with a .455 hitting clip in leading a comeback win over the Waves from 2-1 down.
PACIFIC (1-21 MPSF, 9-21 overall) ended the season with its first MPSF victory since January 31, 2008, and a first-ever win at UCLA, in a 3-0 outcome last Saturday. Hitting and blocking advantages of .265-.088 and 18.5-5.5 respectively sent the Tigers out on a high note. Sophomore Sean Daley was fifth in the MPSF this year in blocking with 1.20 per set.
UMLAUFT AND SHOJI MPSF MOLTEN PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Hawaii freshman opposite Jonas Umlauft (Stadtbergen, Germany) averaged 7.17 kills and 7.92 points per set in the two-match split at UCSB. Umlauft hit .315 (43-14-92) and totaled six blocks (1.00 B/S) with three solo, in leading the Warriors to quarterfinal home court advantage. Five blocks on night one tied a career-high.
Stanford sophomore libero Erik Shoji (Honolulu, HI/Punahou HS) picked up a total of 30 digs in 10 sets (3.00 D/S) over a two-match split, as the Cardinal earned a first regular season MPSF Title and No. 1 seed since 1997. He added five assists at UCI in the clinching win. Prior to both the UCLA and UCI matches, and unlikely to play in either, Shoji was hooked to an IV to combat severe dehydration and fever in battling the flu.
Also Nominated: Carson Clark (UCI); Andrew Stewart (BYU), Kevin McKniff (CSN); Murphy Troy (USC)