Slideshow Conrad Kaminski (4) had 8 kills and 8 blocks in Stanford's three-set sweep of Pepperdine on Thursday. Steven Irvin (12) and James Shaw (8) are also shown. Photo by Hector Garcia Molina/stanfordphoto.com Previous Next

The third-seeded Stanford men's volleyball team ran like a well-oiled machine in beating No. 2 Pepperdine, 25-16, 25-19, 25-16, Thursday in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation semifinals at Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah.

"I think we played Stanford volleyball tonight," Cardinal coach John Kosty said. "We passed well and didn't give up too many unforced errors. We had a solid all-around game and played up to our potential."

The Cardinal (22-7), which defeated the Waves for the third time this season, advances to the MPSF finals on Saturday and will meet top-seeded BYU (20-8), which swept No. 4 UC Santa Barbara. Stanford is 0-2 against the Cougars in league play this season.

Stanford produced its second-best offensive match of the season, with a hitting percentage of .474. The Cardinal registered 10 blocks in the match, holding the Waves to a .114 clip.

Stanford trailed Pepperdine just twice in the match, both times coming in the second set.