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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.
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.