STOCKTON -- Another strong defensive performance paced the top-ranked BYU men's volleyball team to a 3-0 win over No. 12 Pacific on Friday, 30-23, 30-26, 30-28, clinching one of eight spots in the MPSF Tournament. With the win, the Cougars (16-2, 10-2) hold a slim lead over Hawai'i (16-4, 11-3) for the top spot in the overall MPSF standings, while the Tigers fall to 7-11, 3-9, on the season.

"I thought we played a nice match tonight," BYU head coach Carl McGown said. "After having a rough weekend last week, it was nice to see the guys come out tonight with some fire. We have a long way to go on this road trip, so this was a nice way to start it off."

The Cougar defense outblocked the Tigers, 11.5 - 6.0 at the night, led by senior All-American Scott Bunker, who produced six blocks, including two solos and four assisted blocks. BYU forced 26 attack errors on 107 swings, limiting the Tigers to a .187 average on the night. Despite hitting .533 in game two, Pacific was limited to a .026 (13-12-38) average in game one and a .077 (13-10-39) effort in game three.

Junior All-American candidate Mike Wall led the BYU offense with a match-high 16 kills, hitting .483 at the net. Bunker chipped in 10 kills, while UOP's Aaron Wachtfogel led the Tigers with 13 kills on 19 swings to hit a match-high .526.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday evening in the final match of the two-match series. Match time is slated for 7 p.m. (PST) at the Spanos Center in Stockton. BYU will remain in California over the weekend, traveling to Palo Alto for a two-match MPSF series against No. 4 Stanford (10-5, 7-4) on Monday and Tuesday, April 2-3. Matches at Stanford's Burnham Pavilion are scheduled for 7 p.m. (PDT).

THE MPSF PLAYOFF PICTURE

The top four teams in the Mountain and Pacific Divisions will qualify for the MPSF Tournament, beginning Saturday, April 21. The eight teams will be seeded, with the top-four teams hosting a first-round match. After the first round, the championship tournament will be held on the following Thursday and Saturday (April 26-28) on the home court of the highest remaining seed.

Currently, BYU, UCLA and Pepperdine have clinched playoff berths in the Mountain Division, while Hawai'i is the only team to clinch in the Pacific Division. Long Beach State, Stanford and USC need just one more victory to clinch a spot in the eight-team field, while UC Irvine (5-8), UC Santa Barbara (4-8) are fighting for the fourth spot in the Mountain Division.

Brigham Young vs #12 Pacific (Mar 30, 2001 at Stockton, Calif.)
    Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  WALL, Mike..........  3| 16   2  29  .483|  2|  0   0|  2|  7| 0  2  0|  0
 3  ACOSTA, Joaquin.....  3|  6   3  15  .200|  0|  1   1|  1|  2| 0  2  0|  0
 4  OLSEN, Matt.........  2|  4   0   5  .800|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  2  1|  0
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  3|  5   2   9  .333|  1|  0   1|  2|  4| 1  2  0|  0
 9  LEBRON, Hector......  3|  2   1   6  .167| 36|  1   1|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  4
 13 BUNKER, Scott.......  3| 10   3  21  .333|  0|  0   0|  0|  4| 2  4  2|  0
 5  WILSON, Mac.........  2|  1   0   2  .500|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0
 10 LARSEN, Jeremiah....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  2|  2   0   3  .667|  0|  1   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  3|  7| 0  0  0|  1
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
    Cougar errs 2001....   |                 |   |       |  0|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 46  12  91  .374| 43|  3   8|  8| 27| 3 17  3|  5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  4  33  .364   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14  4  22  .455   Brigham Young....... 30 30 30  16-2, 10-2
   3  16  4  36  .333   #12 Pacific......... 23 26 28  7-11, 3-9
    #12 Pacific            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  BERNTSEN, Martin....  1|  3   3   7  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 9  HOEFER, Dan.........  3|  3   3  14  .000|  1|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  1  1|  0
 10 EITHUN, Geir........  3|  6   9  19 -.158|  1|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0
 12 ANDRIC, Vladimir....  3| 11   6  22  .227|  2|  3   2|  1|  4| 0  2  0|  0
 17 TAMAS, Chris........  3|  1   0   3  .333| 41|  3   1|  0|  4| 0  2  0|  1
 18 RODGERS, Sean.......  3|  7   1  20  .300|  0|  1   2|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  0
 1  MACARANAS, Dexter...  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  9| 0  0  0|  0
 4  WACHTFOGEL, Aaron...  3| 13   3  19  .526|  0|  1   2|  0|  6| 1  0  0|  0
 13 GERLACH, Tim........  1|  2   1   3  .333|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 46  26 107  .187| 45|  8  12|  3| 28| 1 10  2|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13 12  38  .026   Site: Stockton, Calif. (Alex G. Spanos Ctr)
   2  20  4  30  .533   Date: Mar 30, 2001   Attend: 300   Time: 1:21
   3  13 10  39  .077   Referees: Eric Asami, Ray Mink
NOTES: BYU clinches playoff berth in the MPSF Tournament.

PROVO -- The BYU men's volleyball team remained the No. 1 team in the nation in this week's USA Today/AVCA Coaches Poll, as well as Volleyball Magazine's Top-10 poll, despite splitting a pair of matches last weekend against No. 5 Long Beach State. This week's poll marks the fifth straight week the Cougars have been ranked No. 1.

"To be honest, it's kind of a distraction," BYU head coach Carl McGown said. "Right now, we just want to be a good volleyball team and be the number-one team when the season is over. We have a tough road trip ahead of us and we can't be worried about who's number one, or number two. We have to concentrate on Pacific and Stanford."

BYU (15-2, 9-2) will travel to California this week, playing four crucial matches in a five-day period. The Cougars will face No. 12 Pacific (7-10, 3-8) on Friday and Saturday, March 30-31. BYU will take Sunday off before traveling to Palo Alto, Calif., taking on fourth-ranked Stanford (10-4, 7-3) on Monday and Tuesday, April 2-3. All four matches are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. (PST).

Currently, BYU owns a one-game lead over third-ranked UCLA (17-5, 9-3) in the MPSF Mountain-Division standings. No. 2 Hawai'i leads the MPSF Pacific Division with a 9-2 league record. The Warriors will travel to BYU on April 13-14.

USA Today / AVCA Coaches Top-15 Poll

(Jan. 27, 2001)

1. BYU (15-2)

2. Hawai'i (14-3)

3. UCLA (17-5)

4. Stanford (10-4)

5. Long Beach State (13-6)

6. Pepperdine (13-6)

7. USC (10-6)

8. UC Santa Barbara (10-8)

9. UC Irvine (9-10)

10. Penn State (17-5)

11. Lewis (16-5)

12. Pacific (7-10)

13. CS Northridge (10-12)

14. Ohio State (13-5)

15. Concordia (15-7)