The Stanford men’s volleyball team showed their resiliency and toughness this weekend in Provo against BYU.

The No. 3 Cardinal (3-1, 3-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) rebounded from a tough 21-30, 34-32, 30-25, 32-30 loss on Friday against the No. 5 Cougars (5-2 overall, 3-1 MPSF) to take the second match of the two-match series, 20-30, 35-33, 30-28, 30-27, on Saturday night.

On Friday night, the Cardinal jumped out to an early one-set lead before dropping three straight sets in front of a hostile crowd of 4,409 BYU fans. The Cardinal was led by senior opposite Evan Romero’s season-high 23 kills and senior setter Kawika Shoji’s 63 assists, eight digs and four kills. However, the team couldn’t overcome a costly 23 service errors.

In the first set, Stanford used its defense and passing to control the tempo, establishing an 18-14 lead after some back and forth play to start the set. Coming out of a BYU timeout, the Cougars recorded three kills, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Cardinal responded and took the first set in commanding fashion, 30-22.

The second set started out much like the first — with neither team able to gain a clear advantage over the other — until BYU recorded two blocks to give it a three-point lead, 17-14. Stanford fought back, however and the Cardinal was up 27-26 late in the set before two serving errors and a hitting error lost the set for the Card.

“Our streaky serving and sometimes inconsistent attacking put us in holes that we shouldn’t have been in,” said sophomore outside hitter Brad Lawson. “We would be leading a game by three or four near the end, but we would often commit unforced hitting and service errors that let BYU back in the game.”

BYU carried its momentum from the close second-set win over to the third set, where the Cougars started out with an early 5-1 run, culminating in a 14-7 lead. Service mistakes by Stanford prevented any chance of a comeback and BYU maintained its lead to take the third set.

The Cardinal, down two sets to one, rebounded in the fourth set to take an early lead, but was unable to hold on down the stretch. BYU tied the match at 27 before two Romero kills helped shut down the Cougars momentum. Unfortunately, Stanford couldn’t hang on, dropping the final three points of the set to lose the match three sets to one.

“This match showed us how close this league really is,” Lawson said. “We’ve talked about it before, but having so many games decided by such small margins this weekend gave us a glimpse of how hard we are going to have to work to get wins in this league.”

On Saturday night, Stanford turned the tables on the Cougars, coming up with a big four-set victory, 20-30, 35-33, 30-28, 30-27, again in front of a raucous crowd. Lawson and sophomore middle blocker Gus Ellis led the way for the Cardinal with 22 kills and 12 kills with nine blocks, respectively.

After dropping the first set 20-30 and being held to a .077 attack percentage, the Cardinal responded by opening a lead in the second and preserving it until late in the set. However, BYU made a comeback with a 7-1 run, giving them set point at 29-27. The Cardinal didn’t give up though and fought off four set points from the Cougars before winning the set, 35-33.

Neither team could jump out to a big lead to start the third set and there were several tie scores before Stanford opened up a small, 18-15 lead. BYU tied it up again at 25 all, but Stanford managed to claim the set on an Ellis kill, 30-28.

In the fourth set, the Cardinal used its momentum to jump out to an early advantage. The Cougars countered to take the lead back 19-16, but Stanford went on a 7-1 run, including four points served by freshman reserve Myles Muagututia. The Card never looked back and clinched the set and the match, 30-27.

“It was extremely important,” Lawson said of getting the win on Saturday. “In a one-point league, where teams are separated by such a small margin, to bounce back and overcome a first night defeat was a great accomplishment, especially in front of such a large, hostile crowd.”

The Cardinal ended its weekend on a high note and looks to carry the momentum from the win into next weekend, where the team will face No. 11 UC-Santa Barbara Thursday night at home in Burnham Pavilion.