PROVO, Utah — No. 1 seed BYU men’s volleyball won the 2021 MPSF Tournament championship with a straight-set victory over No. 3 Pepperdine (25-23, 25-15, 25-19) Saturday night at the Smith Fieldhouse. The conference tournament title is BYU's eighth in program history and first since 2018. 

“I’m just proud, happy, excited and ecstatic for our guys,” said BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead. “We’ve been through a lot. Hats off to Pepperdine, they gave us all we could handle. It means the world to be able to pull off a championship in this venue in front of our fans.”

Gabi Garcia Fernandez was named the MPSF Tournament Most Valuable Player while Wil Stanley and Zach Eschenberg were named to the all-tournament team.

Eschenberg paced the Cougars (19-3) with a match-high 13 kills on a .550 clip to go along with two blocks, two digs and an ace versus the Waves (13-6). Garcia Fernandez tallied 10 kills, four blocks, four digs and three aces while Davide Gardini had seven kills, three blocks and a dig.

Felipe de Brito Ferreira contributed a match-high seven blocks, six kills and a season-high .857 hitting percentage for BYU, while Miki Jauhiainen recorded five kills and four blocks. Wil Stanley posted a match-high 38 assists, six digs, five blocks and a kill.

The Cougars posted a .471 hitting percentage and limited Pepperdine to a .185 clip. BYU had 13 blocks on the night while Pepperdine had none.

SET ONE

The opening set started back and forth, with a block and a kill by Jauhiainen followed by an Eschenberg kill down the line, putting BYU up 9-8. Another kill from Eschenberg and a Gardini block gave the Cougars a 12-10 lead before a 3-0 Pepperdine run put the Waves up 13-12. Garcia Fernandez tallied back-to-back aces later in the set as BYU took a 19-17 advantage. Pepperdine then tied things up at 19 before both teams traded points back and forth, with kills from de Brito Ferreira and Eschenberg knotting the set at 23-all. An Eschenberg kill in the backcourt followed by a de Brito Ferreira solo block then gave the Cougars set one, 25-23.

SET TWO

BYU started the second set on fire, taking an 8-0 lead following a Jauhiainen ace, a pair of Eschenberg kills and a block by de Brito Ferreira. The Cougars maintained a comfortable lead, as a Wil Stanley dump kill and a Gardini kill from the back row put BYU up 14-6. A pair of blocks and a kill by de Brito Ferreira gave the Cougars an 18-9 advantage before a pair of kills from Jauhiainen put BYU up 20-11. The Cougars finished sealed the dominant 25-15 set win with kills by de Brito Ferreira, Eschenberg and Gardini.

SET THREE

BYU took a 7-4 advantage with an ace and a kill from Garcia Fernandez and a kill by Gardini. Pepperdine tied the set at seven before a pair of kills by Eschenberg and one from Garcia Fernandez gave the Cougars a 12-9 lead. Eschenberg and de Brito Ferreira each tallied a kill as BYU went up 17-14, forcing a Pepperdine timeout. Eshenberg notched another kill off a deep pass from Wil Stanley before Garcia Fernandez added a pair of kills to give the Cougars a 21-16 lead. BYU finished off the set, 25-19, with another pair of Garcia Fernandez kills and a Gardini block.

The Cougars will receive the conference’s automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Tournament in Columbus, Ohio. The bracket reveal will take place on Sunday, April 24, at 11 a.m. MDT and will be streamed live on NCAA.com.

PROVO, Utah — Brigham Young University is hosting the 2021 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Volleyball Championship April 22-24 in the Smith Fieldhouse. 

SCHEDULE (All times are MDT)

Thursday, April 22

• 2 p.m. Match 1 – No. 7 Concordia vs. No. 2 UCLA
  UCLA wins 3-1 | BOX SCORE
   
• 5 p.m. Match 2 – No. 5 USC vs. No. 4 Grand Canyon
  Grand Canyon wins 3-1 | BOX SCORE
   
• 8 p.m. Match 3 – No. 6 Stanford vs. No. 3 Pepperdine
  Pepperdine wins 3-1 | BOX SCORE

Friday, April 23

• 4 p.m. Semi-Final Match No. 1 – No. 3 Pepperdine vs. No. 2 UCLA
  Pepperdine wins 3-0 | BOX SCORE
   
• 7 p.m. Semi-Final Match No. 2 – No. 4 Grand Canyon vs. No. 1 BYU
  BYU wins 3-0 | BOX SCORE

Saturday, April 24

• 7 p.m. MPSF Championship Match - No. 3 Pepperdine vs. No. 1 BYU
  BYU wins 3-0 | BOX SCORE

TICKET INFORMATION

• Tickets for every session are on sale now HERE
• 700 tickets will be available for each session
• Each match will be considered a separate session and the venue will be cleared between each match
• Ticket prices are as follows:
  • Single Session Reserved Chair $20
  • Reserved Bench Adult $14
  • Reserved Bench Student $10

BROADCAST INFORMATION

• All tournament games will be streamed live through FloVolleyball
• Download the FloSports App on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV 4, and Amazon Fire TV to watch the 2021 MPSF Men’s Volleyball Championship
• Follow FloVolleyball on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to get the latest news and updates from the 2021 MPSF Men’s Volleyball Championship and other upcoming FloVolleyball events

TEAM INFORMATION

MPSF Conference Home Page

BYU

UCLA

Pepperdine

Grand Canyon

Concordia Irvine

USC

Stanford