Once again, the Stanford men’s volleyball team returned from a weekend on the road with mixed results. After falling to No. 7 Cal State Northridge in three (30-25, 31-29, 30-24), the team rallied back to defeat UC-Santa Barbara by the same margin (30-28, 30-26, 30-26). The No. 6 Cardinal is now 6-3 overall, and 3-3 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) play.

On Thursday the Cardinal played hard, but were swept by the Matadors. Stanford was led by sophomore opposite Evan Romero, who had 14 kills, and redshirt junior Jesse Meredith, who recorded nine kills on the match. The Matadors were led by junior Eric Vance, who posted a team and match-high 15 kills, and freshman Tanner Nua, who filled the stat sheet with seven kills, seven aces, five digs and three blocks.

Game one saw the Matadors earn a few early three-point leads until mid-game, when the Cardinal battled back to make the score 16-15. Moments later, a Cardinal service error brought the score to 17-17, and the Matadors’ Nua to the service line. Six straight points by Northridge gave them the edge, and the Matadors ultimately rounded out the game by the score of 30-25.

“I think we were playing tentatively, and we just didn’t get our passing going,” said senior outside hitter Matt Ceran. “We couldn’t push the ball to the net to get our offense going.”

In the second game, Stanford jumped out to a 10-5 lead but could not take advantage of the hot start. Northridge rallied back to take the lead at 13-12, but Stanford took it back with three straight kills from Romero to bring the game score to 19-18. Stanford kept the lead until Northridge made a crucial kill, making the score 30-29. A Northridge block secured the win at 31-29.

The final game saw the Matadors take a quick lead at 13-8, forcing a Cardinal timeout. Following the timeout, the Matadors continued their run, taking four of the next six points and increasing their lead to 17-10. A pair of aces by Nua in the final points of the game sealed the win for the Matadors, 30-24.

“It’s early in the season, so we’re still trying to figure out our identity as a team, and still working on polishing our skills,” Ceran said. “It hurt to lose to a team like that, so close to us in caliber, so we were motivated to prove ourselves the next night.” And the Cardinal did just that.

After racking in a cumulative hitting percentage of less than .200 in a disappointing loss against Northridge, Stanford rebounded to record a .414 mark in a decisive victory over UC-Santa Barbara.

Ceran led the Cardinal with 17 kills, hitting .517 on the match. Meredith continued his strong showing with 13 kills at a .522 hitting percentage, while junior libero Jarod Keller posted 12 digs — Ceran and Romero were not far behind with eight and seven, respectively. Sophomore Kawika Shoji had 51 assists in yet another 50+ match.

The Gauchos were led by freshman Jeff Menzel, who had a match-high 21 kills with a respectable .341 hitting percentage. Menzel also had one ace, three digs, and two blocks, racking up a match-high 23.5 points. Senior Theo Brunner also posted 8 kills without a single error. He hit .727 for the match.

In game one, the Gauchos took an early lead which they held until 23-20, when Stanford began to mount their comeback. The Card was able to tie up the score at 27-27, and the team completed the run to win the game 30-28. Romero posted six kills in the first game alone, while Shoji tallied 15 assists.

The Gauchos took the lead again to start game two, taking a 20-15 mid-game lead. The Cardinal rallied back to take the lead at 21-20, ultimately winning the game at 30-26. Ceran had his best game of the match with seven kills.

Game three saw the Cardinal take the lead at 17-16 ; the team never looked back. They led until the end, clinching the match at 30-26. Ceran, Meredith and sophomore middle blocker Garrett Werner each posted five kills — Werner posted a .500 hitting percentage. The Cardinal hit a season-high .514 in the final game.

Stanford returns to the court when it hosts the University of Pacific on Thursday, Jan. 31. The match will take place 7 p.m. at Burnham Pavilion.