Coming off a winning weekend in Pennsylvania, No. 8 Stanford men’s volleyball (11-7, 6-5 MPSF) is flying west across the Pacific for a doubleheader against No. 4 Hawaii (18-2, 8-2 MPSP) in Honolulu.
The Cardinal swept No. 15 Penn State on Saturday, and they will look to keep the momentum rolling into this pair of conference matchups.
However, the Rainbow Warriors have built up some momentum of their own: Hawaii has won its last 13 matches and has not lost a single set since Feb. 4 against UC Santa Barbara. The team remains undefeated at home this season.
Senior opposite Clay Jones has had the hot hand for Stanford in recent play. Over the two weekend matches against Lees-McRae and Penn State, Jones tallied 20 kills and eight digs. Against Penn State, he hit a career-high .556 and recorded a season-high 12 kills. Sophomore outside hitter Jordan Ewert continues to be a stalwart player for the Cardinal, leading the team with 198 kills on the season while averaging 3.60 kills per set — ranking him 16th nationally.
The Rainbow Warriors are led by sophomore Stijn van Tilburg, whose 4.43 kills per set rank third in the nation. As a team, Hawaii leads the NCAA with 2.70 blocks per set and ranks fourth in hitting percentage, managing a .336 mark.
Stanford will take on Hawaii on Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m. The matches will be streamed live via Hawaii All-Access at hawaiiathletics.com, and live statistics will be available on gostanford.com.
Contact Olivia Hummer at ohummer ‘at’ stanford.edu.