With a balanced offense and a tremendous defensive effort, the men’s volleyball team swept past No. 7 UCLA 25-18, 25-18, 25-17 and clinched home court for the first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament Saturday night in Los Angeles. When Hawaii lost to No. 1 USC later that night, No. 3 Stanford clinched the No. 3 seed in the tournament, which means that the Cardinal wouldn’t play the top-seeded Trojans until the MPSF final.

Although senior outside hitter Spencer McLachlin led the team with a match-high 10 kills, it was the play of freshman middle blocker Eric Mochalski and freshman outside hitter Brian Cook that really carried the Cardinal (18-8, 14-7 MPSF) to victory. Mochalski hit .562 with nine kills, and Cook chipped in eight with a .571 hitting percentage, boosting Stanford’s overall hitting percentage on a night when it was tough for either team to score.

All-American junior outside hitter Brad Lawson had nine kills and 12 digs, but also eight attack errors and just a .037 hitting percentage. McLachlin also struggled to find his flow in the offense, hitting below .200 for the night. Junior setter Evan Barry finished the night with 31 assists, and junior libero Erik Shoji had seven digs, while junior middle blocker Gus Ellis had five block assists on the night as part of a Cardinal defense that dominated the net all night.

UCLA (16-12, 9-11) never got its offense into gear and had just two players register five or more kills. It hit just .041 as a team, one of the lowest totals in the MPSF all year and the third-lowest hitting percentage a Stanford opponent has finished with since rally scoring began in 2001. The Bruins also had a rare negative hitting percentage in the second set, with five more errors than kills.

It all made for a very quick match that lasted just over an hour and 15 minutes in front of a crowd of 1,064. They saw Stanford celebrate a victory on the floor of the Wooden Center, with a very enthusiastic senior class that tied the mark for career victories with this, their 80th.

It was a much different scene than the one that found Stanford a little worried after its loss Friday night at No. 6 UC-Santa Barbara.

There were plenty of scenarios that would have allowed the Cardinal to clinch home court in the first round of the MPSF and also avoid USC. A loss by Hawaii in its two matches against USC or a victory over either Santa Barbara or UCLA would have done the trick. But when Hawaii upset USC—handing the Trojans just their second defeat all year and first in over two months—and the Gauchos handily beat Stanford, things looked a little dicey.

The loss wasn’t for lack of offense against UCSB (14-12, 11-9), as the Cardinal hit a solid .324 and had three players with 10 or more kills, led by Lawson and McLachlin with 13 apiece. The problem was that UCSB hit a ridiculous .491, with two players over 20 kills each. Stanford could not find a way to win the sideout game, converting just 51 percent of Gaucho serves into points in the fourth and final set on the way to defeat.

“Their two seniors had a great Senior Night,” said head coach John Kosty. “They played well and did what they needed to do to slow us down.”

Mochalski was one of the few bright spots for Stanford, as he had 10 kills and no errors while hitting .625. But it went for naught as the Card failed to hold the lead at 10-8 in the fourth set under the power of UCSB’s .783 hitting in the last set. Uncharacteristically, Shoji had just four digs on the night, well below his season average. The team as a whole had just 21 digs and five blocks.

Next up for the Cardinal is the last MPSF match of the year on the road, at Pacific. Stanford can move neither up nor down in the seedings at this point and will be playing for pride and momentum heading into the MPSF Tournament.