PROVO -- Victor Batista set the tone early with dominant serving and the Cougars rode the momentum to a sweep (30-19, 30-24, 30-24) of the UC San Diego Tritons Friday night in the second-to-last home match of the season. BYU improved to 17-9 overall and 12-7 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and the Tritons fell to 2-21 and 1-18.

"Victor (Batista) served hard and it really got us going," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "If we serve well and receive well, we're going to be very competitive. They were out of system quite a bit and I think a lot of that had to do with our serving."

Batista led the Cougars with 12 kills, three service aces and four blocks. Michael Burke had 10 kills and a match-high .533 hitting percentage (10-2-15) to go along with two aces and three blocks. Russell Holmes came off the bench and had a strong performance with five kills and four blocks.

As a team BYU hit .375 (44-14-80) and had six aces, 23 digs and 11.0 team blocks. The Cougars held the Tritons to a .116 (33-23-86) hitting percentage as no UCSD player managed double-digit kills.

Russ Hardy led the Tritons with nine kills and Adam Rusch contributed seven. Dickens Tai had a match-high 10 digs.

Batista took matters into his own hands to start the first game, serving eight-straight points during a 9-0 run that gave the Cougars an early 10-1 advantage. To go along with his serving run, he scored six of BYU's first 10 points on four kills and two aces. UCSD was unable to overcome the early deficit, trailing by at least six the rest of the way. Leading 27-19, the Cougars benefited from three-consecutive Triton hitting errors to close the game out at 30-19. Batista led the way for BYU with six kills, two aces and two blocks while Neilson set the Cougars to a .400 (18-6-30) hitting percentage. UCSD was held to a .069 (9-7-29) percentage.

The Tritons started strong in the second, jumping out to a 5-2 advantage on kills by Rusch, John Mark Wendler and Russ Hardy. UCSD held the lead until the Cougars tied the score at 11 on a Triton hitting error. A Patterson kill gave BYU its first lead at 14-13 and after a UCSD kill tied the game, the Cougars jumped ahead 17-14 on two Burke aces. UCSD managed to close the gap to 17-16 but the BYU attack was too much as the Cougars outscored the Tritons 13-8 to win 30-24. Burke led the way with five kills and two aces and BYU hit .391 (13-4-23).

UCSD kept the third game close at 9-8 before the Cougars took control on a Batista kill and back-to-back team blocks by Holmes and Perez and Holmes and Evans to go ahead 12-9. BYU maintained a slim lead at 16-12 before going on an 8-2 run to make the advantage insurmountable at 22-14. Peterson then emptied his bench and the second team finished the game, winning 30-24.

"We played well tonight but we can get better," Peterson said. "If we can eliminate the glitches and get more consistent passing and better blocking, we'll be tough to beat."

The Cougars will concluded their regular-season home schedule Saturday night with another match against UC San Diego at 7 p.m. BYU's three seniors, Michael Burke, Casey Patterson and Rob Congelliere, will be honored after the match.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
         UCSD vs #7 Brigham Young (Apr 08, 2005 at BYU PROVO UT 84602)
    UCSD                   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  REUTER, Mike........  3|  6   4  16  .125|  0|  0   3|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   6.5
 2  HARDY, Russ.........  3|  9   8  25  .040|  0|  1   3|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|  10.5
 6  RUSCH, Adam.........  3|  7   2  15  .333|  0|  1   1|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   8.5
 10 TOREN, Adam.........  3|  5   7  19 -.105|  0|  1   3|  3|  1| 1  1  0|  0|   7.5
 20 DIERDORFF, Brooks...  3|  0   2   3 -.667| 30|  0   4|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0|   0.5
 21 WENDLER, John Mark..  3|  2   0   3  .667|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   2.5
 4  TAI, Dickens........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  3| 10| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  SEXTON, Joe.........  2|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 JONES, Nate.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 12 DANLEY, Reuben......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 24 SMITH, Garret.......  1|  4   0   4 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   4.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 33  23  86  .116| 30|  3  16|  6| 18| 1  7  1|  0|  40.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 4.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1   9  7  29  .069   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  12  6  26  .231   UCSD................ (0) 19 24 24  2-21; 1-18 MPSF
   3  12 10  31  .065   Brigham Young....... (3) 30 30 30  17-9; 12-7 MPSF
    Brigham Young          |     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......  3| 10   2  15  .533|  0|  2   3|  0|  1| 0  3  1|  0|  13.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3|  6   2  11  .364|  1|  0   3|  0|  8| 0  3  0|  0|   7.5
 9  PATTERSON, Casey....  2|  4   2   8  .250|  2|  0   1|  1|  1| 1  1  0|  0|   5.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  3|  1   1   2  .000| 36|  1   1|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  0|   3.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  3| 12   2  21  .476|  0|  3   3|  0|  2| 0  4  2|  0|  17.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  5   2  12  .250|  0|  0   3|  1|  3| 0  1  0|  0|   5.5
 2  STEWART, Bryan......  1|  1   1   3  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 4  CONGELLIERE, Robert.  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 5  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  1|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  HEYES, Matt.........  1|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   0.5
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  5   1   6  .667|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  4  0|  0|   7.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 44  14  80  .375| 40|  6  17|  3| 23| 1 20  3|  0|  61.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  6  30  .400   Site: BYU PROVO UT 84602 (SMITH FIELDHOUSE)
   2  13  4  23  .391   Date: Apr 08, 2005   Attend: 2044   Time: 1H 30M
   3  13  4  27  .333   Referees: MAILE JEWKES, TOM GIVEN, MAETANI
                                         1   2   3 Total
                        Tie scores       1   6   3    10
                        Lead changes     1   2   3     6

PROVO -- BYU's three seniors will play in the final regular-season home matches of their careers as the Cougars play the Tritons of UC San Diego Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.

Michael Burke, Rob Congelliere and Casey Patterson are BYU's three departing seniors.

"They have all made big contributions to the program, on and off the court," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "We hope a big crowd will come out and support them and the rest of the team in the final home matches of the season. It will be the last time fans will get to see us as the defending 2004 National Champions."

The seniors will be honored following the conclusion of Saturday's match.

The Cougars are coming off a split with Cal State Northridge and now own a 16-9 overall record and are 11-7 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. These matches with UCSD are pivotal in BYU's ranking in the MPSF and eventual seeding in the league tournament. The Cougars are currently tied with Long Beach State (11-7) for fifth while Hawai'i and UC Santa Barbara (12-6) are tied for third. Pepperdine (17-2) is first and UCLA (16-3) is second.

"The rest of our matches are for seeding in the MPSF tournament," Peterson said. "It's not in our own hands, but the teams ahead of us are playing each other. We could end up with a decent seed, but we have to win these matches."

The Tritons are coached by Ron Larsen, one of three BYU graduates, along with Mike Wilton of Hawai'i and BYU's Peterson, that coach in the MPSF. He played for the Cougars' club volleyball team in the early 1970s.

The 2005 season has been difficult for UCSD, with records of 2-20 overall and 1-17 in the MPSF. The Tritons have played much better in recent weeks however, defeating Cal Baptist, 3-2 (March 9) and USC, 3-1 (March 30) and taking Long Beach State to five games (March 11). The victory over USC was UCSD's first league win of the year. The Tritons followed that match with a 3-0 loss to Pepperdine.

"Even though their record isn't very impressive, every team in our league is good," Peterson said. "They'd been beat up but they're healthy now. We have to take care of business with them."

Luke Honnette has developed into UCSD's go-to player, averaging 4.13 kills per game on the season. He is also one of the top defensive players on the squad, registering 1.30 digs per game. Adam Toren, who is second on the team in kills per game at 2.95, leads the Tritons in aces at 0.31 per game and 17 on the season. Last season against BYU, Toren played one of the best matches of his career, registering 20 kills while hitting .667 (20-2-27). Adam Rusch is third on the squad with a 2.08 kills-per-game average and is the owner of a .328 hitting percentage and a 0.99 blocks-per-game average, both team highs.

BYU will be looking to recover from Saturday night's match, in which the Cougars hit just .170 (42-26-94) and were swept by Cal State Northridge. The night before, BYU gutted out a 3-1 win over the Matadors. Victor Batista had the hot hand that night, pounding out 19 kills and hitting .680 (19-2-25).

Michael Burke continues to lead the Cougars with a .457 (231-44-409) hitting percentage and a 1.32 blocks-per-game average. Following his impressive play in the month of March, Ivan Perez is leading the team in kills at 3.70 per game, is second in digs at 1.45 and in hitting percentage for players with over 200 attempts at .326 (311-117-596).

After this weekend's matches against UCSD, BYU will conclude its regular season on the road against Stanford. The Cougars and the Cardinal will play two matches, Friday and Saturday, April 15 and 16.

Friday and Saturday's match will be broadcast on BYU Radio. To listen, visit http://www.byuradio.org/ or click here. To follow the matches online, visit http://www.byucougars.com/ or click here.