PROVO -- There was plenty of drama in the Smith Fieldhouse as the BYU Cougars defeated the No. 1 ranked UCLA Bruins in four games, 31-29, 30-22, 27-30, 30-28 and unveiled the 2004 National Championship banner Friday night. The Cougars now stand at 6-2 overall and 2-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Bruins are 7-1 and 3-1.

The night started with a ceremony honoring the 2004 team. Each player was introduced and the season was recapped before the team pulled the cord that dropped the banner from the rafters. It now hangs alongside the 1999 and 2001 championship banners.

BYU Coach Tom Peterson was worried his team would come out flat after an emotional day of celebrating the past season. He said he was impressed at how his team came out and played the top-ranked Bruins.

"I was very impressed at how they came out tonight," Peterson said. "There were a lot of distractions today with celebrating the 2004 team. I thought the guys were fabulous."

After winning the first two games, the Cougars struggled to gain momentum in games three and four. BYU dropped the third, 27-30 as a comeback attempt failed. The fourth started out no better as the Bruins took advantage of several Cougar errors, jumping out to a 13-6 lead.

BYU proved resilient, scoring the next five points to get back into the game. After trading points, the Cougars were able to tie the game at 18 and then at 20. UCLA took a 23-21 lead before Rob Neilson, Russell Holmes, and Taylor Evans each had kills to tie the score at 24. Perez had a kill to give BYU its first lead since early in the third and an Evans kill gave the Cougars the lead for good at 26-25.

UCLA was still alive, only down one at 29-28 before senior middle blocker Michael Burke ended the match with a kill. Evans came up with several key kills throughout the night on his way to a career-high 17. Neilson quarterbacked the offense and collected 56 assists while Ivan Perez and Brian Rowley patrolled the back row, registering nine digs each.

Burke had 13 kills and hit .450 (13-4-20) on the night. He led all players with a career-high 10 blocks, three of which were solos, also a career-high.

On the night, BYU hit .279 (67-29-136) and limited the Bruins to .234 (56-26-128).

With a season high 5,629 fans in the Fieldhouse to cheer on the Cougars, BYU started strong in game one. A kill by Burke put the Cougars up 13-11 and started a 6-0 run which included three blocks. BYU maintained the lead up to 27-21 before the Bruins stormed back to tie the score at 29. The Cougars answered as freshman outside hitter Ivan Perez registered a thundering kill and Evans followed with one of his own to give the game to BYU, 31-29. Evans led the Cougars with seven kills while Neilson had 16 assists.

The score was tied at 7-all in the second before BYU went on a 7-2 run to blow open a close game. Up 14-9, the Cougars were able to cruise to the 30-22 win as UCLA never got closer than four. The offensive and defensive efforts of BYU were solid as the Cougars hit .440 (15-4-25) and limited the Bruins to a .149 hitting percentage (11-7-28).

BYU and UCLA will play again Saturday night at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                      Briham Young University - Volleyball
            UCLA vs Brigham Young Univ. (Jan 28, 2005 at Provo, UT)
    UCLA                   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  JOHNSON, Paul.......  4| 11   6  22  .227|  0|  1   4|  0|  2| 0  4  0|  0|  14.0
 7  ACOSTA, Jonathan....  4| 13   5  26  .308|  1|  0   2|  0|  7| 0  2  1|  0|  14.0
 9  ACEVEDO, Julio......  3|  0   0   0  .000| 18|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  1|   0.0
 14 KLOSTERMAN, Steve...  4|  5   5  21  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  2  0|  0|   6.0
 17 VINCE, Allan........  4|  4   1  10  .300|  0|  2   4|  0|  1| 2  2  1|  0|   9.0
 26 KRAUSHAAR, Kris.....  4|  8   3  23  .217|  0|  1   3|  0|  9| 0  2  0|  0|  10.0
 1  KER, Tony...........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 3  GONZALEZ, Dennis....  4|  0   0   0  .000| 36|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  GARRETT, Gray.......  2|  3   1   6  .333|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0|   4.0
 21 GEORGE, Paul........  4| 10   5  18  .278|  0|  0   3|  0|  3| 1  0  0|  0|  11.0
 27 SCHEFTIC, Nick......  2|  2   0   2 1.000|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0|   3.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 56  26 128  .234| 55|  4  22|  2| 36| 3 16  2|  1|  71.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1   9  4  28  .179   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  11  7  28  .143   UCLA................ (1) 29 22 30 28  7-1, 3-1 MPSF
   3  19  9  36  .278   Brigham Young Univ.. (3) 31 30 27 30  6-2, 2-1 MPSF
   4  17  6  36  .306
    Brigham Young Univ.    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  BURKE, Michael......  4| 13   4  20  .450|  1|  0   3|  0|  4| 3  7  1|  0|  19.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  4| 11   7  24  .167|  3|  1   3|  1|  9| 0  3  0|  0|  13.5
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  4|  6   2  14  .286|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  1  1|  0|   6.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  6   3   9  .333| 56|  0   4|  0|  7| 1  3  0|  0|   8.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  4| 10   5  23  .217|  1|  0   3|  2|  0| 0  2  4|  0|  11.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  4| 17   6  39  .282|  1|  1   3|  0|  6| 1  1  0|  1|  19.5
 2  STEWART, Bryan......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  HEYES, Matt.........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  PATTERSON, Casey....  4|  4   2   7  .286|  0|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   4.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 67  29 136  .279| 62|  2  19|  4| 39| 5 17  6|  1|  82.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20 11  39  .231   Site: Provo, UT (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  15  4  25  .440   Date: Jan 28, 2005   Attend: 5629   Time: 2H 30M
   3  13  7  35  .171   Referees: JOHN MARTIN, BURT FULLER, MAETAINI
   4  19  7  37  .324
                                         1   2   3   4 Total
                        Tie scores       5   5  14   8    32
                        Lead changes     2   2   5   2    11

PROVO -- The BYU men's volleyball team will be back in Provo for a showdown with the No. 1 team in the nation, the UCLA Bruins, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. The 2004 team will be honored by the unveiling of the National Championship banner before Friday's match.

Historically, UCLA has dominated the world of NCAA men's volleyball, having won 18 National Championships, most recently in 2000. The Cougars have replaced them as the team to beat in the last six years though, winning in 1999, 2001 and 2004.

Almost all the players from the 2004 team will be in attendance and be honored before the match on Friday for their amazing run to the National Championship. The team included four All-Americans, including BYU's first AVCA National Player of the Year, Carlos Moreno, fellow First-Team All-American Fernando Pessoa, and Second Teamers Victor Batista and Joe Hillman. Only Batista is playing with the current squad.

Coach Tom Peterson said he hopes the Fieldhouse will be packed to honor the 2004 team and cheer the current group on to victory.

"It will be a fun night for the crowd," Peterson said. "I hope we have to turn people away at the gates because we are so full. The crowd support helps us so much. We have the best fans in the country."

The matches will be the 35th and 36th between the teams, with the Bruins owning the 23-11 advantage. BYU has owned the series since 2001, winning six of eight, including the 2001 National Championship match. Since 1999, the Cougars have won five straight over UCLA in the Smith Fieldhouse.

The Bruins own the best record in the country at 7-0 overall and 3-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. UCLA's record includes wins over Long Beach State, Cal Baptist, Pepperdine, and UC Irvine.

"They'll be the best team we play," Peterson said. "Most people would consider them to be the team to beat this season."

Middle blocker Paul Johnson has been dominant for the Bruins, averaging 3.46 kills per game while hitting .521. Opposite hitter Steve Klosterman and outside hitter Jonathan Acosta are second and third on the team in kills averaging 3.17 and 3.12, respectively. As a team, UCLA is out-hitting its opponents .358 to .259.

According to Peterson, BYU will need to be on top of its game to defeat the Bruins.

"We will have to overcome all the ups and downs we've had," Peterson said. "We'll have to play a great match to be them. We can't have the same ups and downs we've had in the last few weeks. This could determine who wins the regular season in the MPSF."

The Cougars split two matches with UC Santa Barbara last weekend and now stand at 5-2 overall and 1-1 in the MPSF. BYU dropped the Friday match in four games in a match filled with errors and missed opportunities. The Cougars were on fire Saturday as the swept the Gauchos and hit a season-high .506. Junior outside hitter Victor Batista finished with a career-high 23 kills and hit .656.

After falling from No. 2 to 3, BYU will hope to climb back up in the national rankings with a good showing versus UCLA. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. and fans are encouraged to arrive early to guarantee a seat.

Friday's match can be seen on BYU-TV and KBYU-TV and heard on BYU radio.

To view the broadcast online, visit www.byutv.org/streaming/ or click here. The match will also be broadcast on BYU radio. To listen, visit http://www.byuradio.org/ or click here.