Cougars Ranked Among Nation's Top Teams

PROVO -- Both Volleyball Magazine and the American Volleyball Coaches' Association today released their first official polls of the season. Volleyball Magazine placed the Cougars fifth behind Penn State, UCLA, Hawaii and Stanford, while the AVCA Coaches' Top-15 poll lists BYU as the No. 6 team. Penn State also leads that list with 10 first-place votes, while UCLA, Stanford, Pepperdine and Hawai'i round out the top five.

The Cougars split a pair of matches over the weekend against No. 3 Stanford, losing 1-3 on Friday, but turning in a hard-fought performance on Saturday to knock off the Cardinal, 3-2. BYU (1-1) will take on No. 15 Pacific on Friday and Saturday in the Smith Fieldhouse. Both matches are scheduled to being at 7 p.m. (MDT).

"Pacific is a top team, just like Stanford," BYU head coach Carl McGown said. "Our goal is to have a good week of practice and prepare for Pacific. They are a very good team and we need to have a good week of practice in order to have a chance against them."