After coming off a career-high performance to help lead the ninth-ranked Long Beach State men's volleyball team in Friday's victory, senior middle blocker Antwain Aguillard outshined himself again.
Except this time, his new career-best of 24 kills Saturday came in a match when his team needed it the most: a come from-behind victory on the road over second-ranked Stanford.
The 49ers rallied from a two sets-to-one deficit to knock off the Cardinal — 25-19, 22-25, 20-25, 25-19, 15-12, at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, Calif.
Aguillard didn't commit a single attack error on 35 swings to finish with an impressive .686 hitting percentage.
Trailing 2-1, LBSU (12-10, 10-7 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) used a late rally to claim the fourth set, 25-19.
After trading points with Stanford (15-6, 12-5 MPSF) early in the game, The Beach stormed out to a 9-3 run sparked by an Aguillard kill to prompt a set-point opportunity with a 24-19 advantage.
Freshman Taylor Crabb, who added his second consecutive double-double with 14 kills and 10 digs, put the frame away with a kill down the line to force a fifth set.
LBSU took a 9-6 lead in the fifth set following an Aguillard kill, but Stanford answered with back-to-back kills to cut the deficit to one.
The 49ers kept their poise, though, to take five of the next eight points — four of which came from Aguillard and Crabb — to set up match point.
The Cardinal held off the first match point following a kill from Spencer McLachlin, who along with Brad Lawson helped pace the Cardinal with 21 kills.
But it wouldn't be enough as LBSU setter Connor Olbright found Crabb on the outside for the final kill of match
Connor Olbright finished with a double-double as he collected 58 assists and 10 digs, while senior Kirk Francis finished with a team-high 12 digs.
Meanwhile, Stanford libero Erik Shoji had a match-high 16 digs.
Long Beach State out-hit Stanford, .396 to .291, and held a 10-to-4.5 edge in blocks.
The ‘Niners will continue its game four-game roadstretch next week for a pair of matches against third-ranked BYU on Thursday at 7 p.m and Friday at 6 p.m.
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