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NewsvineThe Cardinal men’s volleyball team looks to bounce back from a five-game skid this weekend, but the feat may be a tough one, as the men take on UC-San Diego and Long Beach State. UCSD visits Stanford on Thursday in Burnham Pavilion, while the No. 1 ranked 49ers play Stanford in Maples Pavilion on Friday.
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Chris Ahlfeldt, a senior middle blocker for the Cardinal (1-5, 0-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation), sees his team improving, even if the record doesn’t show it.
“It’s definitely frustrating to have a losing record right now, but I think we are getting better,” Ahlfeldt said.
Ahlfeldt professed optimism for future games, saying that if his team keeps up the same positive attitude and continues to improve at the same rate, the wins will start to fall into place.
For now, though, Stanford has to focus its attention on UCSD (0-3, 0-1), the only Division 2 team in the MPSF. The Tritons don’t offer scholarships, so they cannot sign some of the best players in the MPSF, but they never give in.
“(UCSD is) always pretty consistent,” Ahlfeldt said. “We’re expecting a decent team.”
Head coach Don Shaw agrees with Alhfeldt.
“San Diego is a team that is always very scrappy, they are always clawing for every win they can get,” he said.
When asked about San Diego’s inability to recruit the same quality of players as many of the other West Coast teams, Shaw immediately said that the Tritons certainly don’t play like they are at a disadvantage.
UCSD’s new head coach Kevin Ring spent the past nine years as an assistant coach for UCSD, his alma mater.
Long Beach State (5-0, 1-0) is currently the top team in the nation and has plenty of weapons to showcase its talents.
Tyler Hildebrand was an all-American last season as a junior and was recently named the Most Valuable Player at the UC-Santa Barbara Elephant Bar College Invitational.
Shaw said that last season, Stanford’s Kevin Hansen shared top honors with Hildebrand as the best setter in the country. Now, Hildebrand stands alone. Shaw added that Hildebrand possesses the ability to distribute the sets to nearly any player no matter where the pass is.
LBSU’s top outside hitter, senior Robert Tarr, was a first team All American as a junior. He has a total of 1,050 kills over his career and stands at No. 14 of the all-time leaders in kills at his university.
Last year against the Cardinal, Tarr amassed 36 kills in one game, his career high. To stop that from happening again, Stanford’s block needs to be consistent. Ben Reddy, Stanford’s senior opposite hitter, Jeremy Jacobs, a senior setter, and Alhfeldt and sophomore Matt Ceran, the starting middle blockers, will have to focus on closing each block to contain Tarr.
Long Beach’s middle blockers pose a threat as well. Duncan Budinger is the top hitter on the team percentage wise at .475. Teddy Liles leads the team in total blocks with 32 in a young season.
The entire Stanford team remains encouraged, despite the skid of five straight losses.
“Each match we play, we want to play it better than the last time out,” Shaw said. “We’ve got to cut down on our errors and give ourselves opportunities to score points and eventually win games.”