Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PROVO — Ben Patch had been here before, on this court, when 11th-ranked Stanford charged to a five-set win over No. 1 BYU.
He was not going to let it happen again.
Patch spiked a season-high 25 kills to give the Cougars a 16-25, 25-23, 25-21, 22-25, 15-10 win over the Cardinal and earn a weekend split to open Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play Saturday night at the Smith Fieldhouse.
"The biggest thing for me was to be in the moment," Patch said. "Every single play, we just knew what we needed to do to execute and be the best volleyball team, embracing everything that was going on."
Patch made just seven errors on 44 swings, hitting at a team-high .409 amongst players who had at least five kills for BYU (3-1, 1-1 MPSF). The sophomore from Provo High pulled his team up as they hit just .167 in their first-set loss, then rallied his team in two separate sets to earn the win after Friday night's upset. Stanford's win in Provo was BYU's fourth loss since the start of the 2013 season.
"If that is a hint at what every game is going to be like, I don't know if I'm ready. It was fun," Patch said with a wide smile. "It was really fun.
"I maybe need to be a little more in shape."
Brenden Sander added 14 kills and four blocks for the Cougars, who got 47 assists and seven digs from Leo Durkin, seven blocks from Michael Hatch, and seven digs from Evan Chang.
His play speaks for itself. That's why Ben is who he is right now. But in reality, we can't just rely on that. For us to be great, we've got to have good contributions from other guys. Thank you, Ben, but we've got to be a little more even keeled all around.
–BYU men's volleyball coach Shawn Olmstead
In the decisive fifth set, Stanford rotated the court up one, 8-7. But BYU scored two of the next three points, then put down three-straight thanks to some shifty Cardinal attack errors before Patch laid out back-to-back kills to set up match point.
On the first try, Jarman swatted a ball at the net, and BYU took the 15-10 fifth-set win to earn the split of the weekend with Stanford, which will likely move up from the No. 11 spot in the AVCA Coaches' Poll last week.
Madison Hayden led the Cardinal (3-1, 1-1 MPSF) with 13 kills and seven digs. Teammates Kevin Rakestraw, Gabriel Vega and Conrad Kaminski added 11 kills each for Stanford, which made 22 of the match's 41 service errors.
A lot of numbers, all adding up to one tired first-year BYU men's volleyball coach by the end of the 48-hour marathon with the Trees.
"I'm exhausted, that's for sure. I'm sure they are, and I talked about that," BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said. "Luckily we got a day off (Sunday). But I guess this is my welcoming gift to the MPSF. We've got to go."
BYU trailed early in the first set, falling behind 18-11 on an ace by Stanford setter James Shaw, who had 46 assists, 16 digs and five kills. The Cougars barely got going after that, and Stanford took the first set, 25-16, on a block by Shaw and Alex Stephanus.
"It didn't come as easy as some of our guys thought it might, and you can't have that mindset," Olmstead said. "Maybe they didn't, but they came out, and all credit to Stanford: They didn't back down. They had great energy, so props to them."
After the Cardinal tied the second set at 4-4, BYU kept pace before it could pull away 23-19 on Sander's kill. Stanford tried to rally back with three-straight points, including a block by Stephanus. But BYU finished the set off, 25-23, on Sander's kill that gave the Cougars a 1-1 draw going into the mid-match break.
"Playing with any Sander is amazing; you look up, and he's just flying. They make it look so easy," Patch said. "Brenden is so amazing, and such a weapon anywhere on the court. It's really fun to watch him; I don't mind sitting back and watching him."
BYU came flying out of the third set, going up 6-4 before Stanford tied the set three times. But the Cougars used a 5-1 run to grab an 18-13 advantage before launching to a 23-18 rally on Tim Dobbert's soaring kill from the right side.
The Cougars, who hit .400 with 14 kills on 25 swings with just four attack errors, found a rhythm that worked on offense — at times in spite of their service efforts. Patch put the set away on his 14th kill of the match, spiking a ball that dipped just inside the back line to give BYU a 25-21 win and the 2-1 advantage going into the fourth set.
"His play speaks for itself," Olmstead said of Patch. "That's why Ben is who he is right now. But in reality, we can't just rely on that. For us to be great, we've got to have good contributions from other guys.
"Thank you, Ben, but we've got to be a little more even keeled all around."
Rakestraw gave the Cardinal a 22-18 advantage late in the fourth set, and Vega set up the final point at 24-19. But BYU rallied on set point, scoring three-straight before Hayden tied the match at 2-2 with a 25-22 victory.
"Our mentality wasn't to beat Stanford going in. Our mentality was not to beat ourselves," Patch said. "We wanted to win, but we wanted to do it the right way. Stanford is great, but we wanted to focus inward and be ourselves in every moment.
"It was a total mental game."
