SAN DIEGO -- The Cougars took sole possession of first place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with a 3-0 (30-27, 30-21, 30-26) win over UC San Diego Saturday night at RIMAC Arena. BYU, ranked No. 1 in the nation, is now 12-2 overall and 10-2 in the MPSF while the Tritons are 1-12 overall and 0-9 in the MPSF.

Russell Holmes led the Cougars with nine kills and eight blocks while hitting .438. All three numbers were match highs. The Cougars earned the sweep despite hitting only .238 for the match. BYU overcame the poor hitting with defense, recording 12.0 team blocks and 23 digs.

"We have some time to work on things now," BYU coach Peterson said. "We just need to get better. We have important matches coming up. We can't accept not playing great."

Brenden Bowe led UC San Diego with seven kills while Joseph Sexton had a match-high eight digs. The Tritons hit -.070 for the match and had 6.5 team blocks and 27 digs.

After Thursday's lopsided match, Saturday's proved more competitive. The Tritons took an early lead at 9-6 in game one before the Cougars went on a 5-0 run to take the lead. UC San Diego kept battling, coming back to tie the match at 16 and leading late in the game at 26-25. BYU prevailed by scoring five of the next six points for the 30-27 win, including a kill by Batista for the winning point. The Cougars hit .320 for the game and the Tritons hit .217.

BYU wasted little time in getting ahead in game two. With the score tied at six, the Cougars went on a 5-1 run to go ahead 11-7. The Tritons would get no closer than three the rest of the way and BYU ended the game on a 7-3 run to win, 30-21. The Cougars hit .379 and limited UC San Diego to -.120 hitting.

In the third, BYU capitalized on several Triton errors to jump out to a 9-3 lead. All nine Cougar points were scored on one UC San Diego service error and eight hitting errors, including two blocks by Holmes. The Tritons managed to stay close the rest of the way but their errors proved too difficult to overcome, winning 30-26. UC San Diego finished the game with 17 hitting errors and hit -.211.

The Cougars will have the next weekend off and then play Stanford at home, March 3 and 4.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
       #1 BYU Cougars vs UC San Diego (Feb 18, 2006 at La Jolla, Calif.)
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  CALA, Yosleyder.....  2|  6   1  11  .455|  0|  0   4|  1|  4| 0  2  0|  0|   7.0
 5  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  3|  0   0   2  .000| 26|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  2|   1.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  2|  6   5  12  .083|  0|  0   4|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   6.5
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  9   2  16  .438|  0|  0   6|  0|  1| 1  6  0|  0|  13.0
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  2|  4   1   7  .429|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  1|   5.5
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  6   3  17  .176|  0|  1   5|  0|  5| 0  1  1|  0|   7.5
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  2|  3   2   9  .111|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   3.5
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  2|  1   2   5 -.200|  0|  0   0|  1|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   1.5
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  2|  2   1   5  .200|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0|   3.0
 20 NEFF, Chip..........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  7|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  1|   1.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 37  17  84  .238| 33|  1  24|  3| 23| 1 22  2|  4|  50.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  6  25  .320   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15  4  29  .379   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 30 30  12-2, 10-2 mpsf
   3   8  7  30  .033   UC San Diego........ (0) 27 21 26  1-12, 0-9 MPSF
    UC San Diego           |     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|  5   6  18 -.056|  2|  2   2|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   7.5
 7  DAZE, Jon...........  3|  2   4  10 -.200|  0|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  1  0|  0|   2.5
 13 BOWE, Brenden.......  2|  7   6  18  .056|  0|  0   4|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   7.5
 20 DIERDORFF, Brooks...  3|  0   1   4 -.250| 20|  0   3|  0|  6| 0  3  0|  0|   1.5
 21 WENDLER, John Mark..  3|  3   2   6  .167|  0|  0   6|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0|   4.5
 24 SMITH, Garret.......  3|  3   3   9  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  0|   4.0
 2  HARDY, Russ.........  2|  3   6  10 -.300|  0|  1   1|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   4.5
 9  SEXTON, Joseph......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  8| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 SAYERS, Chris.......  2|  3   4  11 -.091|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0|   3.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 26  32  86 -.070| 23|  3  19|  1| 27| 0 13  1|  0|  35.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  6  23  .217   Site: La Jolla, Calif. (RIMAC Arena)
   2   6  9  25 -.120   Date: Feb 18, 2006   Attend: 640   Time: 1:25
   3   9 17  38 -.211   Referees: Kent Kitade, Patsy Malta

COUGARS HEAD TO SAN DIEGO

BYU will head to UC San Diego for its second road trip of the season and play two matches versus the Tritons, Thursday and Saturday, Feb. 16 and 18. Following two home wins over USC, the Cougars are 10-2 overall and second in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation at 8-2.

"UC San Diego is the only division II team competing in our league," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "While they are at a disadvantage in that aspect, they work very hard and are very well coached. We want to go in there and play our hardest and show that we respect them."

BYU is coming off back-to-back wins over USC in Provo and is ranked No. 1 in the CSTV/AVCA Division I-II Men's Coaches Top 15 Poll and the Volleyball Magazine poll. The Cougars started the season ranked No. 1 in the Volleyball Magazine poll but this is the first time they have been ranked in the top spot in the CSTV/AVCA poll.

The matches will be the 19th and 20th meetings between BYU and UC San Diego. The Cougars have dominated the series, leading 18-0, including 8-0 in San Diego. BYU has swept the Tritons 14 times and the teams have never player a five-game match.

Outside hitter Jon Daze leads UC San Diego in kills at 2.82 per game and adds 1.29 digs per game. Middle blocker Garret Smith leads the team in hitting percentage at .336 and averages 2.26 kills and 0.84 blocks. As a team, the Tritons are hitting .195 and average 2.12 blocks and 8.24 digs per game.

In the first match against USC last weekend, Jonathan Charette and Russell Holmes led the Cougars to a 3-1 win. Charette tallied 13 kills and seven blocks while hitting .364 and Holmes had 12 kills and seven blocks and hit .526.

The next night, BYU dropped games one and two but won game three, 30-20, behind the play of Taylor Evans and Yosleyder Cala. The Cougars continued to roll, winning game four 30-22 and then stealing the match from the Trojans with a 15-11 win in game five. BYU hit a combined .594 (45-7-64) in games three, four and five. Cala led BYU with a team season-high 26 kills on Saturday while hitting .622 (26-3-37).

A livestats feed will be available for both matches at www.ucsdtritons.com. Following the matches with the Tritons, the Cougars will have a week off and then play two matches against Stanford in the Smith Fieldhouse, March 3 and 4.

MATCH NOTES

No. 1 BYU COUGARS (10-2, 8-2 MPSF) at UC SAN DIEGO (1-10, 0-7 MPSF)

Thursday and Saturday, Feb. 16 and 18, 2006 - 7 and 8 p.m. MST

RIMAC Arena (5,000) - San Diego, Calif.

Coaches: BYU, Tom Peterson (at BYU: 82-23 in fourth year, career: 334-153 overall)

UC San Diego, Kevin Ring (at UCSD: 1-10 in 1st year, career: same overall)

Series: BYU leads, 18-0, including last season's sweep by BYU in Provo, Utah

Livestats: Visit http://www.ucsdtritons.com/ and click on the 'UCSD Livestats'

link on the left hand side of the page

LAST MATCHES - BYU vs. USC

The Cougars improved to 10-2 overall and 8-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with two wins over USC Friday and Saturday, Feb 10 and 11. In the first match, BYU used a balanced attack and strong defense to earn a 3-1 (30-24, 28-30, 30-27, 30-25) win. Jonathan Charette had 13 kills and seven blocks, a career high, to lead the Cougars while Russell Holmes added 12 kills and seven blocks while hitting .526. In the second match, BYU lost game one 30-25 while hitting just .032. Yosleyder Cala entered the match late in the game and provided a lift but the Cougars lost again in game two, 30-26. From there BYU dominated as the offense got going. The Cougars hit .483 and won the third 30-20 and were even better in the fourth, hitting .583 on their way to a 30-22 win. BYU was nearly perfect in game five, hitting .909 (10-0-11) to win 15-11. Cala finished with a BYU season-high 26 kills, hit .622 and added three aces while Taylor Evans recorded 17 kills. Brian Rowley tied the BYU rally scoring record for most digs in a match on Saturday with 16. He had 30 for the weekend.

THE POLLS

BYU earned a No. 1 ranking in the CSTV/AVCA Division I-II Men's Coaches Top 15 Poll for the first time in 2006. The Cougars reached the top spot after earning back-to-back home wins over USC. BYU received nine of the possible 16 first-place votes while Pepperdine received the other seven. The Cougars are also ranked No. 1 by Volleyball Magazine. BYU was No. 1 in the first three polls but dropped to No. 2 after losing to UCLA.

CALA DOMINATES TROJANS

Yosleyder Cala dominated USC Saturday, Feb. 11 when he recorded 26 kills and hit .622. It took the 6-8 freshman just 37 swings to reach the BYU season high as he recorded just three hitting errors. Cala used power and various tip shots to fool the USC blockers. He also added three aces, five digs and two blocks. Cala finished the match with 30.0 points.

CAN YOU DIG IT?

Brian Rowley had the best defensive weekend of his career when BYU defeated USC in back-to-back matches last Friday and Saturday. On Friday, he tied his career high with 14 digs in BYU's 3-1 win. On Saturday, he tied the BYU rally scoring record with 16 digs in the Cougars' come-from-behind 3-2 win. BYU lost games one and two on Saturday but dominated USC in games three, four and five to capture the win and improve to 9-1 at home. Rowley recorded 14 digs twice last season and his previous high this season was 11, which he accomplished against Cal Baptist and Cal State Northridge.

NATION'S BEST FANS

BYU fans continued to show their support for the men's volleyball team as several thousands showed up to cheer on the Cougars when they played USC. On Friday, Feb. 10, 3,263 attended the match while 2,718 came out on Saturday night, despite the fact that there was a men's basketball game that night starting an hour before the volleyball match. BYU sold out both of its matches against Pepperdine and over 4,300 fans attended each night against Cal State Northridge and over 3,500 attended each night against UC Santa Barbara. The Cougars are now averaging 3,823 fans per match, the best in the NCAA.