Coming off a disappointing pair of losses in Southern California, the Stanford men’s volleyball squad looks to start the second half of its conference season strong with a come-back in its home rematches against No. 4 UC-Irvine and No. 6 UCLA this weekend. The Anteaters and Bruins each swept the Cardinal last weekend.

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Sophomore Brandon Williams has been an offensive leader for the Cardinal in recent matches, and scored seven kills in Stanford’s last match against the Anteaters. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/6914
Mehmet Inonu

Sophomore Brandon Williams has been an offensive leader for the Cardinal in recent matches, and scored seven kills in Stanford’s last match against the Anteaters.

“Basically, we are really looking forward to this weekend,” coach John Kosty said. “We knew that we had the opportunities to win last week — with a couple changes, we feel confident that we can get a win going into the matches this weekend.”

UC-Irvine (12-3, 7-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) features a lineup dominated by seniors and has many players holding some of the top spots in the MPSF statistics. Senior David Smith holds the No. 1 rank in hitting percentage (.551) and the fourth spot in blocks. Senior Brian Thornton is ranked sixth in assists with a 12.84 per-game average. To top it off, seniors Matt Webber and Jayson Jalonsky hold the third and sixth spots, respectively, in aces.

Although Irvine holds an impressive 7-3 record, the Cardinal (1-13, 1-8 MPSF) made the Anteaters work for their win last week, holding them to the three game scores of 30-28, 30-22 and 30-22.

“Against Irvine, we had our chances to win, especially in the first game,” Kosty said. “We have already played them twice, so we know them pretty well and feel prepared going into the match.”

UCLA (7-6, 5-5 MPSF) will be another tough matchup for Stanford this weekend. Steve Klosterman leads the Bruins and is ranked ninth in the conference in aces. Last week’s match against UCLA was relatively even, and the night eneded with the Cardinal holding a .323 hitting average compared to the Bruins’ .379 average. Though the Cardinal was swept in three games, 30-25, 30-28 and 34-32, all were within just nine points.

Individually, several Stanford players had fantastic showings against UCLA. Junior Matt Ceran notched 18 kills, freshman Evan Romero posted 10 and sophomore Brandon Williams racked up nine.

But the Bruins answered with two players, Steve Klosterman and Paul George, who each recorded kill totals in double figures (14 and 16, respectively).

“The UCLA match was very close,” Kosty said. “We had great opportunities in the second and third games in order to win the match, but we just couldn’t clinch a win.”

On the season, the Cardinal holds many of the top spots on the MPSF individual statistics board. Ceran holds the ninth spot in kills per game, leading Stanford with an average of four per game. Also showing his potential is freshman Kawika Shoji, who ranks sixth in aces.

With such close matches played last week, the Cardinal has an optimistic outlook on this weekend’s rematches.

“It is to our benefit to play both Irvine and UCLA back to back,” Kosty said. “They are fresh in our minds, and we know what we have to do. It’s up to us to execute a win.”

Stanford will host the Anteaters in Maples Pavilion tonight before facing UCLA tomorrow in Burnham Pavilion. Both matches will be at 7 p.m.