When the No. 7 Stanford men’s volleyball team takes the floor tonight in Burnham Pavilion, it will be going for just its second win over Pacific in its six previous attempts. The tide seems to have turned — while the Cardinal is having its best season in several years, the Tigers are still looking for their first win of the year.

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Alex Oppenheimer

The No. 7 Cardinal men should have little difficulty beating a still winless Pacific squad tonight. Despite a pair of recent losses, the Stanford rebirth on the court rebounded last week against UCSB in a three game sweep.

“They are on the young side as a team,” head coach John Kosty said of Pacific. “But they fight hard and scrap and they will get their wins in league.”

Last year, the Tigers (0-8, 0-6 MPSF) won both of their meetings with the Cardinal (6-3, 3-3); 2008 is a new year, however. While the Cardinal returned almost all of its starters from 2007 and brought in one of the nation’s best freshman classes, Pacific lost their senior setter and middle blocker, the anchors of last year’s team.

“They have two solid returning starters in Pekka Seppanen and Simon Chen-Byerley,” Kosty said. “They are good players and that is a great core to build a team around — a really good outside hitter and a really good middle blocker.”

Seppanen, the offensive leader as a junior, again spearheads the Pacific offense in his final season with 91 kills at a .224 clip. The senior from Finland is also the Tigers’ top digger and server, with 56 digs and 11 aces on the season.

Chen-Byerley, also a senior, has started every match and is fourth in kills and is hitting a team-high .402. He is also second in service aces and third in blocking. Jeff Hendershot leads the net defense with 21 blocks, while freshman setter Kris Staks is averaging 11.29 assists per game.

A win tonight would be the Cardinal’s seventh of the year, giving the team as many wins as it has had in the last two years. If the first month of this season was any indication, Stanford seems well on its way to its first double-digit win total since 2005 and its first winning season since 2003.

Stanford comes into tonight’s match fresh off a win against Santa Barbara, which stopped a two-game skid. With an even MPSF record, the Cardinal sits comfortably in the middle of the conference. The Tigers, on the other hand, have been swept in five of their last six outings.

When the two teams — traveling partners in the MPSF — went to Southern California last weekend, the Tigers were swept by both No. 6 Northridge and Santa Barbara. The Cardinal earned a split.

“We are still a young team,” Kosty said. “We have had some losses that we were not happy with and some wins that we may not have earned quite like we should have. But we have learned a lot so far.”

The young members of the Stanford squad — six freshmen and five sophomores — have already seen substantial playing time and are contributing, despite their relative inexperience.

“The nice thing about our team is that we have a good mixture of veterans and younger players,” Kosty said. “We have been intermixing the returners and the young guys through the season and that has helped the younger players mature very quickly.”

Sophomore opposite Evan Romero and senior outside hitter Matt Ceran are the Cardinal’s top hitters, with 119 and 101 kills on the season, respectively. As a four-year starter and the only senior on the roster, Ceran has been a valuable leader for Stanford.

“Matt Ceran has played great for most of the season so far,” Kosty said. “His play has been key in all of our victories.”

Ceran also leads the defense with 79 digs on the year. He also has 11 blocks, making him one of six players in double-digits at the net. Junior Brandon Williams has a team-best 19, while Romero and freshman middle blocker Charley Henrikson each has 17.

“One of the great things about this team is how deep we are in the middle,” Kosty said. “We have started four of our five middle blockers this year and all of them have played. We have really improved our whole middle blocking corps from last year.”

The Cardinal will face off with the Tigers tonight in Burnham Pavilion at 7 p.m. They will follow that with a match on Saturday night against non-conference opponent Ball State (4-5, 2-1 MIVA), also in Burnham.