It was only three years ago that the Stanford men’s volleyball team finished a gut-wrenching 3-25 season (2-20 in conference play), but you wouldn’t know it from looking at Monday’s AVCA coaches poll. The Cardinal earned the No. 1 spot for the first time since February 6, 2001, when they held the top rank for only a week before finishing the season at No. 5.

Now with a 12-4 record and a half-game lead over fellow Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) team Pepperdine, Stanford is trying to erase the memories of …