The No. 4 Stanford men’s volleyball team shook off some early jitters against Division III power UC-Santa Cruz before pulling away and winning its season opener, 3-0, at Burnham Pavilion.

Cardinal head coach John Kosty was pleased with the performance given that the team had not been able to scout its opposition much and was coming off a break.

“Santa Cruz is a good team, and we came into this match needing to get competition besides what we have in practice,” he said. “That’s exactly what they gave us; it was a good chance to compete against someone besides ourselves.”

Junior Evan Barry had a nice game for the defending national champions, tallying 31 assists before sitting much of the third set with the match in hand.

“We needed to get into a groove and Santa Cruz jumped off to a good start,” Barry said. “But in the end we found our rhythm, it just took longer than we wanted it to.”

Santa Cruz’s fast start was helped by some excellent blocking up front, particularly by Thomas Davidson, who led the Banana Slugs (0-1) early with four kills and three blocks. However, Stanford (1-0) fought back to tie the score late, perhaps with the help of the referee who failed to see a touch out of bounds by junior outside hitter Brad Lawson on set point for Santa Cruz. The Cardinal fended off three Santa Cruz set points and eventually won the set, 28-26, on Barry’s only kill of the night. Redshirt junior outside hitter/opposite Garrett Dobbs was pleased with Barry’s play, but said he has come to expect excellence from the first-year starter.

“Evan played great, but I’m not at all surprised because he is super dedicated both to the game and the program,” he said. “He always comes to practice with a confidence that he can fill [graduated senior setter and last year’s AVCA player of the year Kawika Shoji’s] shoes and take us to a national championship.”

The second set saw Stanford take control early with consecutive kills and a couple of Santa Cruz miscues, but the Slugs rallied and gave Stanford some problems again with several blocks.

The Cardinal responded, drawing energy from its costumed fan section, and eventually Stanford’s talent and depth were simply too much for Santa Cruz to handle. Sixteen players saw action and 10 registered at least one kill. The team didn’t light up the stat sheet, hitting a solid .256, but led by junior libero Erik Shoji’s 10 digs, Stanford held Santa Cruz to a very poor .083 hitting percentage.

Back-to-back solo blocks by junior outside hitter Jake Kneller helped ignite a run of six straight points in the middle of the second set. Stanford won the set comfortably, 25-17.

With a 2-0 lead, the third set saw several freshmen wet their feet in the collegiate game, and they didn’t disappoint. Outside hitters Brian Cook and Steven Irvin in particular had good debuts, tallying seven and five kills respectively.

“The whole experience was just really fun and I am really happy to be a part of the team and just happy to be out there,” Cook said. “It was nice to come back from a bit of a deficit because it showed that we trust each other, and it’s a good starting point for the rest of the season.”

Kosty, too, was pleased with the work of his freshman group.

“There’s going to be some nerves playing for the first time with a Stanford jersey on, but they worked through it pretty fast and played a nice game,” he said.

It helped that the Slugs fell apart a bit in the third set, making several poor attempts and registering only seven kills in the set, as Stanford went on a nine-point run to lead by as many as 12. The Cardinal closed out the match, winning the final set, 25-14.

“The old saying ‘get the rust out’ really applies here,” Kosty said. “In the first game we had to really tighten our belts and catch some breaks. But we were able to finish the game strong.”

Things will get much tougher right away for the Cardinal, as BYU comes to town on Jan. 14 for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) opener.

“That’s the fun part about the MPSF,” Kosty said. “It’s always right around the corner. We have six practices and the alumni game to get ready for our MPSF opener, and the Cougars are going to be a good team.”