No. 8/10 Stanford season-best serving performance overpowers No. 6/7 BYU

Photo courtesy of Stanford athletics

Setter Nathan Lietzke did all – from running the offense to delivering offense from the service line.

Lietzke finished with a match-high three aces as No. 8/10 Stanford swept No. 6/7 BYU 25-19, 25-20, 25-21 in the finale of their two-match series on Saturday in Stanford, California.

The Cardinal (9-9, 2-4 MPSF) had a season-high 12 aces in front of a home crowd of 980 people. In addition, Stanford ended with one more ace than service errors against BYU (11-7, 2-4 MPSF).

Four Cardinal players had multiple aces to help end the team’s three-match losing streak. Along with Lietzke, outside attacker Will Rottman had three aces, while opposite Moses Wagner and outside attacker Kevin Lamp each contributed two aces.

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Wagner in the second game had back-to-back aces to give the Cardinal the lead as part of a 7-1 run. The Cardinal had six aces in the five-point second-game victory that was capped off with a game-winning ace from Lietzke.

Lietzke guided the offense to out-hit BYU .299 to .244.

Lamp led Stanford with nine kills on a .421 attack percentage and did not commit an attack error until midway through the third game. Middle attacker Nathaniel Gates also had six kills and zero errors on a .600 attack percentage.

Outside attacker Miks Ramanis in the loss had a match-high 16 kills and hit .444. Ramanis, though, was the only Cougar to have more than five kills.

Stanford with this victory splits the two-match conference series against BYU. The Cougars defeated the Cardinal in a fifth-game overtime on Friday to open the series.

The finale win also moves Stanford into a three-way with BYU and No. 12 USC for fourth place in the MPSF.