Men's volleyball frustrated by Stanford

The night after USC bumped No. 1 Stanford off of its undefeated pedestal, the Cardinal reclaimed its throne with a 15-7,15-11,15-11 win over the Cal State Long Beach men's volleyball team at the Pyramid. Cardinal Coach Ruben Nieves said his team went into Saturday's match against the 49ers with a little doubt, but were determined to get a split out of the weekend. "We've got a lot of hype behind us," said Nieves. "We've had some wins against some not so good teams. This weekend was our first real test." Stanford's Mike Lambert, who Nieves calls "America's premiere player," bounced back full force against Long Beach, after hitting a low .230 at USC. "(Friday's loss against USC) was a disappointing performance," said Lambert, who just returned from a season sabbatical to play in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. "The definite goal was to come back strong against a good team." Long Beach put up a good fight, but its output was not strong enough to hold back Stanford. After a devastating loss in game one, Long Beach struggled in a neck-to-neck race with the Cardinal, who always seemed to have the upper hand. Every time the 49ers hustled up a lead, Stanford came back to take it away. Long Beach's Geoff Cryst said weak blocking lost the game for the 49ers. Stanford out-blocked Long Beach 32 to 16. "If you don't put up a good block against a team like Stanford," said Cryst, "it's going to be a long night,"