The No. 9 Stanford Men’s Volleyball Team will travel to Provo, Utah, this weekend to take on No. 1 Brigham Young.

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Sophomore Evan Romero goes up for the ball. Romero leads Stanford with 216 kills. At an average of nearly five kills per game, he is on his way to eclipsing his season total from last year, 384. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/8615
Jeff Keacher

Sophomore Evan Romero goes up for the ball. Romero leads Stanford with 216 kills. At an average of nearly five kills per game, he is on his way to eclipsing his season total from last year, 384.

Last weekend, Stanford came away with a victory over the University of the Pacific 3-2 (30-26, 30-19, 24-30, 30-32, 15-11), avenging an earlier defeat in January.

About midway through the season, the Cardinal has shown an interesting array of talent.

For the second consecutive year, sophomore opposite Evan Romero leads the team in kills. At an impressive 216 — about 5 per game — he is well on his way to trumping last year’s 384. He is also demonstrating incredible consistency, recording 20 kills in the match against Pacific and 27 in matches against UC-Santa Barbara and Northridge.

Senior outside hitter Matt Ceran is second in kills at 141, averaging just under 4 per game. He is equally strong on defense, accumulating a team-high 95 digs.

Sophomore Kawika Shoji is the current leader in assists, posting 385 so far this season. Though he primarily plays setter, he moved to attacker against Pacific and did remarkably well at that position, as well. Shoji posted 19 kills at a .368 hitting percentage and 4 blocks to go along with them.

Freshmen Spencer McLachlin and Charley Henrikson have also proven themselves assets to the Cardinal team. After missing the first seven games of the season due to injury, McLachlin returned to play against UCSB, Northridge and Pacific, posting 16 kills at a .314 hitting percentage in the last game.

Henrickson has been able to deliver when called upon, so far accumulating almost 40 kills. He has only committed 4 errors of 65 attempts, achieving a .523 hitting percentage.

The BYU Cougars, however, are no easy team to beat. They are currently undefeated, with only three of their 11 matches having gone to 5 games.

They are coming off a much-needed 3-1 victory against UCI (28-30, 30-22, 30-24, 30-26). On Tuesday, All-American senior middle blocker Russell Holmes was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Week (MPSF). The week before that, senior outside hitter Ivan Perez held the same title.

Perez leads the team in kills with 173 at a .364 hitting percentage. Senior Jonathon Charette is not far behind, with 151 kills at a .260 hitting percentage. The Cougars have four players who have accumulated more than 100 kills on the season, and wield a .313 hitting percentage as a team.

Stanford will play BYU this Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. at Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah. Next week, the team returns home to play the University of Hawaii on Wednesday and Thursday at Burnham Pavilion.