ATHERTON, Calif. – Men's volleyball started its two-game stretch at Haynes Prim-Pavillion on Friday night, taking down Menlo in Atherton for the first time in two years. The win in straight sets (25-18, 25-20, 25-20) was highlighted with a polarizing 20-9 lead in block assists (10-5 total blocks), equaling their second largest haul at the net this season.
VU improves to 9-13 overall and 5-6 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Oaks drop its eighth straight, shifting to 3-16 and 2-8.

What Happened?
Set 1 The opening stanza was tight until the midway point, where VU eventually found some distance. The Lions would hit .296 (12-4-27) and locked out the middle with a 4-1 lead in blocks. The hosting Oaks could not come out as sharp as they would've hoped, as an even split of kills (8) to attack errors (8) placed them at .000 for the first set.

Logan Freemon had the first kill of the night, going from the outside to blot the Lions on the board. MC was perfect on its first three swings and laid out the first service ace of the competition for a 5-4 MC score. VU got their middles rolling with a kill from Micah Sybesma (7-7), but the Oaks remained narrow pacesetters in the early stages, tacking on a 4-0 run for the largest lead of the night (11-7 MC).

The Blue and Gold regained its footing after a quick timeout and marked control of the front row to push seven Oak errors in a 9-3 VU turnaround (16-14 VU). This time, it was Menlo's turn to burn a timeout, but VU never let them back into the set. Cole Oliver sprouted a kill and ace to lead Vanguard into the red zone, as the Oaks coined just one more kill for the remainder of the period.

Set 2 The Oaks picked up the pace in hitting percentage for their match-best .207 (13-7-29) outscoring VU in kills. Unfortunately for the hosts, the Blue and Gold also fired in their own match-high rate, swinging .409 (12-3-7). The pair were also even in aces (2-2) and blocks (3-3).

VU mustered up a double block between Freemon and Braddock Duckworth to put the set in motion and traded evenly for a 4-4 tie early on. Menlo carved an inch of breathing with two kills and a block, warranting a two-point lead, but they coughed up two errors and felt the service pressure from Cole's second ace of the game to lose the advantage and call for time at 8-7 VU.

Freemon had his best set with four kills and used a strong passing stretch from Oliver to plant two successive kills. The Lions would build a 5-1 run out of the timeout and added another Freemon kill and a Willy Wang dump to lead 13-8.

Menlo had its second ace of the frame to break double-figures, but more Oak service errors fueled the VU scoring output as they tacked on another five points in a flash, including Freemon's fourth kill of the period. The Oaks did manage to squeeze within a few points for minor parts of the set's conclusion, but a Lion timeout at 20-17 put the visitors back in rhythm. Sybesma had a pair of kills within the red zone, and Freemon closed his standout set with conviction. The sophomore piled on another two block assists and swept the set-sealing ace for 2-0 Vanguard.

Set 3 While set two presented the pairing's sharpest hitting metric of the night, set three cast the exact opposite narrative offensively. The Lions were sub .100, docking a .088 (11-8-34) hitting percentage while the Oaks sank into the negatives at -.143 (6-10-28). VU dominated at the blocks, however, with a 4-2 trade to help produce the win.

Like the previous two frames, set three started with a long-winded duel of ties, with the 11 total standing as the game-high for a single set. After four total errors split between both teams, VU stepped out to a short-lived 6-5 lead thanks to the line shot from Grant Veldman.

The game grew cagey from there. 10 of the next 11 combined points came via attack or service error.  Veldman had the only kill in that stretch, but his next point off the Brock Henderson assist, launched the Lions up to a tight 13-11 buffer as Menlo called for a timeout. The Oaks recovered on a 3-1 run, marking the game's final tie at 14-14.

VU never trailed for the remainder of the game. Sybesma served an ace, Duckworth slapped down a kill, and the sophomore middle blocker teamed up with Henderson for two double blocks to pinch a 6-0 run (20-14 VU).

It was a messy finish in the game's final scoring bursts as seven errors were committed in the last combined 11 points. Oliver cemented a trifecta of aces for the match on the way to match-point, and Duckworth palmed the career-high tying seventh block assist to win the game for the Blue and Gold.

What's Next? The Lions will close the series with Menlo tomorrow at 2 p.m.