UCLA
Stanford
Bruins Win Sixth Straight as Stanford Falls in Four
February 17, 2005 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 17, 2005
The No.1 ranked UCLA men's volleyball team won its sixth straight match and 13th of the season by beating Stanford in four games at Pauley Pavilion Thursday night.
The Bruins won 30-21, 30-20, 31-33, 30-26 in two hours in front of 492 fans. The victory raised UCLA's record to 13-1 overall, 9-1 in MPSF play. Stanford, which lost its fifth match in six contests, fell to 4-9, 3-7.
The Bruins easily won Games 1 & 2 by putting together scoring runs and outplaying the Cardinal at the net. In Game 3, the Cardinal hung tough, despite squandering a 25-21 lead. The Bruins tied the match at 26-26. UCLA had two swings to win it, but each time Stanford answered with a side-out point to tie the score. Finally, the Cardinal scored two straight points after a 31-31 tie.
In Game 4, a 12-12 tie was broken when Stanford committed three straight hitting errors and the Bruins' Paul Johnson spiked a kill for a four-point lead. The lead never shrunk to less than three points and UCLA won the game and the match on another kill by Johnson.
Johnson smashed a season-high of 22 kills (.545) and added four total blocks and an ace to lead the Bruins with 25.5 points. Senior Brennan Prahler, in his second start of the season, recorded his first career double-double with 15 kills (.560), four total blocks and a career-high of 10 digs. Seniors Jonathan Acosta and Allan Vince added 13 kills and Kris Kraushaar contributed 11 kills. Setter Dennis Gonzalez recorded a career-high of 67 assists and freshman Tony Ker added a career-high of 20 digs.
The Bruins out-blocked the Cardinal 11.0-6.0 and recorded 77 kills to Stanford's 56. UCLA also had eight more digs.
Senior David Vogel led Stanford with 17 kills, followed by Craig Buell who added 10.
The Bruins' next home match is Sat., Feb. 19 vs. Pacific at 7 p.m. in Pauley Pavilion. Next week, the Bruins host third-ranked Hawaii on Feb. 25 and 26.
