Stanford stays undefeated with four-set win over Ball State

AUSTIN, Texas. — Of the six teams that participated in the First Point Collegiate Challenge in Austin, Texas, two left the NCAA men’s volleyball battle royale unbeaten.

One was Ohio State. The other was Stanford.

After sweeping No. 7 Penn State on Friday, No. 8 Stanford (6-0) got a bit more resistance from No. 14 Ball State (7-4) on Saturday en route to an up-and-down 25-9, 21-25, 30-28, 25-18 victory.

“I think the big takeaway (from the weekend) is men’s volleyball, top to bottom, is pretty competitive,” said Stanford fifth-year opposite Will Rottman. “You’ve kind of got to bring it every match.

“In the past, we’ve had some big wins but plagued by some bad losses. So thrilled to be consistent through this point in the year and deal with the ebbs of flows within matches and come out with the ‘W’ most times.”

Rottman had a huge night in the Austin Convention Center with 22 kills, hitting .409), to go with four of Stanford;s eight aces, two blocks and six digs to earn player-of-the-match honors. While Stanford hit .303 and had 12 serving errors, Ball State hit .185 and had four aces and 13 errors.

Moses Wagner, who was named player of the match Friday in Stanford’s victory over Penn State, added 15 kills, an assist, eight digs and two blocks, one solo. Alex Rottman, Will’s sophomore brother, added seven kills, five digs, an assist and four blocks, two solo. Adam Chang had four kills and four blocks.

Setter Nathan Lietzke had two kills, 39 assists, two aces and 10 digs, and Luke Turner had nine digs and three assists.

Stanford neutralized Ball State junior Tinaishe Ndavazocheva, who was nearly unstoppable the previous day against USC, when he registered 23 kills on .300-plus hitting and served six aces. Against Stanford, he had  nine kills on 39 swings for a .026 percentage and a lone ace. He had two blocks and five digs.

“I think the level of calmness in those situations has become more prominent throughout the years,” Will Rottman said. “That’s been nice. Relying on our experience has been good. I don’t know what it looks like from the outside in, but we feel pretty confident in those situations.”

On the other side, Ball State coach Donan Cruz lamented another one that got away. His team lost in four to USC on Friday after winning the first set.

“It’s January, so we have to try our hardest to remain optimistic,” Cruz said. “We’re fierce competitors. Our team had opportunities, and we looked like we were ready to fight, and we did. That’s a what top-level (team) is going to do. They’re going to stress you out and challenge you to be your best in really hard moments.

“In set two, they made a bunch of errors, and we capitalized. And even in set three we fought back. There were moments that we really want to hang on and build.”

Rogers had 19 kills on 32 swings to hit .500 and had two blocks and four digs. Hernandez contributed nine kills but hit .080 to go with four blocks and five digs. Tinais Nadavazocheva had nine kills but eight errors, an ace, two blocks and five digs. Wil McPhillips had five blocks, one solo, to go with two kills and and ace.

Setter Griffin Satterfield had two kills, 41 assists, an ace, two blocks and two digs.

Ball State has a week off before playing host next Sunday to No. 3 Hawai’i. Four nights later, Penn State comes to town.

“The main takeaway is we have some areas where I think we have a lot of room to grow,” Cruz said. “We’ve got to try to focus on them. It’s fixable stuff. It’s not like we’re sitting here and we don’t have the guys … We’ve just got to put it together, and our guys just have to remain consistent and have a good attitude.”

Stanford stays undefeated with four-set win over Ball State Volleyballmag.com.