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PROVO -- In front of 1,362 Cougar fans, the BYU men’s volleyball team (22-8, 16-7 MPSF) won its first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament 3-1 against UCLA (16-14, 11-12 MPSF) 30-28, 30-26, 26-30, 30-26.

“It was a team effort for sure,” said BYU head coach Shawn Patchell. “We finally got some good angles on the ball and persevered. If we’re in system, we’re going to be good—we’re going to pass the ball well and Reed is going to distribute the ball well.”

Leading the Cougars in consistent play was Kevin Sagers, hitting an impressive .682, tallying 17-of-22 kills with two errors, the hitting percentage a new career-high for the junior.

Sophomore Robb Stowell led the Cougars in kills with 18, while senior Andrew Stewart had 16. Sagers and Reed Chilton led the team in digs with nine each while Chilton tallied 52 assists.

Off to a rocky start, the Cougars found themselves down 5-1 to start off the first set. Battling back to knot the score at 17, BYU gained its first lead of the game at 22. With back-to-back kills from Stowell, the Cougars earned their largest lead of the set at 24-22. A pair of BYU hitting errors gave the Cougars a run for their money to end the set 30-28, Stewart earning the last point with a cross-court kill.

Stewart led the Cougars on the attack in set one with seven kills on a .545 clip. Stowell added four kills and led the team in digs with five.

After trading the first four points, the Cougars pulled away gradually, gaining the largest lead at 18-13 after three-straight points from Stowell, Stewart and an ace from Lavaja. Maintaining the lead the rest of the set, the Cougars won 30-26.

Stowell held up the front row in set two with five kills while Sagers added four kills on .800 hitting and led the back row with four digs.

In an evenly matched set, the Cougars and Bruins battled it out in set three, the Bruins coming out with their first win of the night at 30-26. Sagers hit a perfect 6-of-6 from the outside while Stowell added five kills and Silva tallied four digs.

Getting out to a fast start in set four, the Cougars earned a 9-5 lead, forcing UCLA to call a timeout. With another 4-2 Cougar run, the Bruins called another timeout to regroup. With a 5-2 run to end the set and match, the Cougars finished with a kill from Sagers at 30-26.

The Cougars will next face CS Northridge, who defeated USC 3-1 Saturday night in the quarterfinals. The teams will face off Thursday in the semi finals of the MPSF Tournament Thursday at Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif.

  Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
        #7 UCLA Bruins vs #2 BYU  Cougars (Apr 24, 2010 at BYU PROVO UT)
   UCLA Bruins            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3  Tom Hastings........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  2| 11| 0  0  0|  0
7  Garrett Muagututia..  4| 16   7  32  .281|  3|  0   2|  0|  6| 0  0  1|  0
14 Jack Polales........  4| 14   7  29  .241|  1|  1   3|  0|  6| 0  3  0|  0
17 Dylan Bowermaster...  3|  7   4  15  .200|  0|  1   3|  0|  1| 0  0  1|  0
18 Thomas Amberg.......  4|  6   4  21  .095|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  3  2|  0
25 Kevin Ker...........  4|  2   0   2 1.000| 58|  0   4|  0|  2| 0  3  1|  0
28 Nick Vogel..........  4| 13   0  25  .520|  0|  2   7|  0|  0| 1  5  0|  0
10 Brett Perrine.......  1|  2   0   2 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
27 Ryal Jagd...........  2|  7   2  14  .357|  0|  0   3|  1|  4| 0  1  0|  0
34 Alex Scattareggia...  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
39 Scott Vegas.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 67  24 140  .307| 64|  4  24|  3| 31| 1 16  5|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  5  34  .294   SET SCORES                1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14  7  35  .200   UCLA Bruins......... (1) 28 26 30 26  16-14, 11-12, MPSF
   3  19  4  34  .441   BYU  Cougars........ (3) 30 30 26 30  22-8, 16-7, MPFS
   4  19  8  37  .297
   BYU  Cougars           |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3  CHILTON, Reed.......  4|  2   0   3  .667| 52|  1   2|  0|  9| 0  4  0|  0
5  LAVAJA, Russell.....  3|  3   2   6  .167|  1|  1   5|  0|  0| 0  2  1|  0
11 SAGERS, Kevin.......  4| 17   2  22  .682|  0|  0   4|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  0
13 STOWELL, Robb.......  4| 18   6  40  .300|  2|  1   3|  0|  7| 0  2  1|  0
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  4| 16   6  34  .294|  1|  0   1|  1|  2| 0  4  1|  0
17 TAVANA, Futi........  4|  5   2  12  .250|  2|  0   2|  0|  1| 1  7  0|  0
1  TUTTLE, Kent........  4|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 1  1  0|  0
4  SILVA, Joel.........  4|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  2|  7| 0  0  0|  0
7  ROBINSON, Jeff......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
9  SOUZA, Otavio.......  2|  1   1   2  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
10 TAYLOR, Mat.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 63  19 121  .364| 59|  3  18|  4| 35| 2 20  3|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  5  29  .414   Site: BYU PROVO UT (SMITH FIELDHOUSE)
   2  13  5  33  .242   Date: Apr 24, 2010   Attend: 1362   Time: 2:17
   3  17  4  30  .433   Referees: Rick Holmstead, Mike Farrish, MA,ZA,KM,DM,NH
   4  16  5  29  .379

The No. 2 BYU men’s volleyball team (21-8, 15-7 MPSF) hosts No. 7 UCLA (16-13, 11-11 MPSF) for the quarterfinals of the MPSF tournament Saturday at the Smith Fieldhouse. The match will begin at 7 p.m. MT.

BYU finished its schedule with a 1-1 split vs. CS Northridge and earning the No. 2 seed on sets over the Matadors, 5-3 in the series. BYU had the best team block (3.78 B/S) and overall defense during the season, holding opponents to .250 hitting. Futi Tavana (1.78 B/S) and Russell Lavaja (1.55 B/S) were the top blockers in the MPSF.

UCLA is ranked seventh in the MPSF as well as tied for No. 7 in the AVCA poll after defeating No. 1 Stanford 3-2 and falling to Pacific 0-3 at home last weekend.

Series Info

Although the Bruins lead the all-time series against the Cougars at 28-18, BYU is 13-8 against UCLA since the beginning of the 2001 National Championship season. A weekend sweep for either team has been hard to come by in Los Angeles, with each series ending in a split dating back 2002. Twenty-five of the 46 total meetings between BYU and UCLA have resulted in sweeps, while 12 have gone to four sets and only nine have reached the five-set mark. This season the Cougars took two of the last three against the Bruins in January.

Match Coverage

The match will be broadcast live on BYUtv. Fans may watch a live stream at www.byu.tv.

Live stats are available at the BYU men’s volleyball schedule page at www.byucougars.com. Gametracker can be launched by clicking on the “Live Stats” link for the appropriate game on the schedule.

Coming Off...

In a matchup of two of the MPSF’s best teams, the No. 2 BYU men’s volleyball team split with No. 3 Cal State Northridge Friday and Saturday 3-0, 2-3. In the three-set win on Friday, Andrew Stewart recorded a career-high 13 blocking assists, a team-high on the season in three games, in the victory over the Matadors. Setter Reed Chilton’s 46 assists was also a team-high on the season in three games. Stewart led the team with 12 kills on the night, followed closely by Futi Tavana with 10 of his own. On Saturday in an exhilarating five-set match on Senior Night seniors Chilton and Stewart led the team in assists and kills, respectively. Chilton finished with 42 assists and Stewart with 18 kills. Fellow senior Joel Silva finished with double-digit digs for the eighth time this season with 14. The performance marks his 37th career double-digit dig game.