Two nights after having its nine-match winning streak broken, the No. 2 Stanford men’s volleyball team battled back against No. 13 Hawaii (1-4, 1-1 MPSF) for a grueling 3-2 win to earn a series split in Honolulu.
The Cardinal (4-1, 3-1) was in danger of losing two consecutive matches for the first time since last January after getting swept in front of a raucous Warrior crowd of 3,551 on Friday.
However, senior outside hitter and Hawaii native Spencer McLachlin, one of seven Hawaii natives on Stanford’s roster, put on an offensive show in the second match, and freshman Eric Mochalski had the two biggest kills of his young career to avoid a sweep and keep Stanford near the top of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). McLachlin tallied a career-high 29 kills Sunday while hitting .375 in the win, which was a close battle from start to finish.
Stanford began Sunday’s matchup better than Friday’s, winning the first set, 25-21, but Hawaii rallied behind another big home crowd and dominated the second set, 25-17, with another top-notch performance from outside hitter Jonas Umlauft. Last year’s MPSF newcomer of the year, the 6-foot-9 sophomore had 29 kills on the night, including seven in the second set. It looked like Umlauft might swing the momentum back to Hawaii.
But the third set belonged to the Cardinal, who stood out early and held on despite plenty of attack errors on both sides. Stanford hit .257 while Hawaii hit just .129, well below its average of .300 for the match.
Up two games to one in the fourth set, Stanford came out strong and held a slim lead midway through the set. But Hawaii again rallied and took a 21-19 lead on a kill by Steven Hunt. Stanford head coach John Kosty called a timeout and the Cardinal regrouped to tie the score at 23. After Stanford couldn’t capitalize on match point at 24-23, the set went back and forth for several points. Hawaii staved off four more match points and had six set points of its own, but it wasn’t until Nejc Zemljak’s service ace that the Warriors forced a fifth and final set with a 36-34 win.
The Warriors carried most of the momentum in the fifth set, flying past Stanford to a 5-1 lead in the final set to 15. But another timeout by Kosty settled the Cardinal. Stanford’s blocking slowed Hawaii’s attack, and a key team block by McLachlin and junior blocker Gus Ellis brought Hawaii’s lead to 13-12.
A kill by Hawaii’s Joshua Walker gave the Warriors match point at 14-13, but a service error squared everything at 14. Hunt had another kill to give Hawaii yet another match point at 15-14, but Stanford junior outside hitter Brad Lawson’s kill off junior setter Evan Barry’s 62nd assist of the night tied the match at 15.
It was then that Mochalski took over in the spotlight, earning a point off a Hawaii overpass to make it 16-15, and then spiking a pass by Ellis for his seventh kill of the night – a match winner.
Several of the team’s Hawaii natives had big matches, led by McLachlin and junior libero Erik Shoji, who had 16 digs. The match lasted two hours and 54 minutes, the team’s longest of the year by over half an hour.
It took Hawaii just an hour and 45 minutes to dispatch a jet-lagged Cardinal in the opener on Friday, when Stanford hit just .200 as a team and held the lead only twice in the 3-0 loss.
Stanford will hit the road again to continue league play this Friday against Cal State Northridge.