PROVO -- The fifth-ranked BYU men's volleyball team extended its win streak to six straight matches--including its third straight 3-0 victory--after knocking off No. 12 Ohio State on Friday, 34-32, 30-23, 30-25. The Buckeyes, a 2001 NCAA Final Four participant, dropped to 4-2 on the season, while the Cougars improved to 6-1.

All-American Mike Wall led the Cougars with 17 kills, while Joaquin Acosta and Jaime Mayol had 13 kills each. Mayol posted a match-leading .632 average at the net, connecting on 13-of-19 attempts with just one error.

In game one, the Buckeyes jumped to a dominating 19-11 lead. The Cougars later mounted a strong rally, reeling off an amazing five straight points to cut the lead to just two points at 20-18.With Rafael Paal serving, Chris Gorny killed an OSU overpass to pull within one. On the next play, Wall tied the score at 22-22 with one of his match-high 17 kills. After an Acosta serving error, Ohio State looked to have things well in hand with a 29-27 lead and serving for game point. BYU fought back to tie the score at 30-30, when another Gorny kill gave the Cougars their first lead of the night, 31-30. The two teams would tie things up again at 32-32 when OSU's Ricardo Garcia was called for a double hit. With Mayol serving for game point, Gorny stuffed an Ohio State attack to complete the amazing come-from-behind victory, 34-32.

"It was beyond belief that we were able to come back and win the first game," McGown said. "That set the tone for the rest of the night. Ohio State was on fire early on and you have to credit our hitters for making those adjustments."

After getting outblocked in game one, 7.5-3.5, the Cougar defense stiffened, holding the Buckeyes to just 1.5 blocks the rest of the night. BYU racked up a total of 9.5 blocks, led by middle blocker Chris Gorny with 5.0 blocks.

"I guess we just get used to hitting against ourselves in the gym," BYU head coach Carl McGown said. "Then when we we face a big team like Ohio State, we have to make adjustments. I thought we did a nice job doing that."

In game two, it was all BYU. The Cougars racked up five aces in game two, fueled behind freshman Carlos Moreno, who had a match-high four on the night. With the scored tied at 11-11, the Cougars mounted a run. BYU pushed the lead to an eventual seven-point margin. Leading 27-20, the Cougars committed back-to-back-to-back service errors, cutting their lead to 29-23. Finally, an Ohio State attack error ended the game with BYU on top by seven, 30-23, equaling the Cougars largest single-game victory of the season.

In game three, the two teams traded serves until BYU broke away from a n 16-16 tie to go up by three, 28-25. Wall and Gorny teamed up to block an Ohio State attempt to get to 29-25. On the following play, Paal was credited with the match-winning ace after his bullet serve lanced off Garcia in the back row.

U.S. National team member Pieter Olree led the Buckeyes with 17 kills on 33 swings, with six errors, hitting .333 on the night. BYU recorded eight aces on the night, while the Cougar defense, led by Fernando Pessoa, did not allow a single Ohio State ace.

The two teams will square off again on Saturday in the Smith Fieldhouse. Match time is slated for 7 p.m. (MST).

Ohio State vs Brigham Young (Feb. 1, 2002 at Provo, Utah)
    #12 Ohio State         |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  GARCIA, Ricardo.....  3|  4   3  16  .062|  6|  0   3|  2|  2| 0  0  1|  1
 5  TRANTOW, Tom........  3|  7   4  17  .176|  2|  0   4|  2| 11| 1  3  1|  0
 9  DILLON, Aaron.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 10 PEDERSEN, Adam......  3|  3   3   8  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 1  4  0|  0
 11 SPURLOCK, Scott.....  2|  0   0   2  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 12 OLREE, Pieter.......  3| 17   6  33  .333|  1|  0   3|  3|  3| 0  2  2|  0
 6  PECKHAM, Mark.......  3|  4   1   6  .500| 27|  0   3|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0
 7  HAMILTON, Brett.....  1|  3   0   4  .750|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 13 WAULIGMAN, Mike.....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 16 LEHMAN, Mark........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 38  17  86  .244| 37|  0  16|  8| 23| 2 14  4|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  6  38  .184   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2   9  4  19  .263   #12 Ohio State...... 32 23 25  4-2 ;
   3  16  7  29  .310   Brigham Young....... 34 30 30  6-1 ; 5-1 MPFS
    Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  WALL, Mike..........  3| 17   4  33  .394|  2|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  4  0|  1
 4  ACOSTA, Joaquin.....  3| 13   4  24  .375|  0|  1   3|  0|  2| 1  1  1|  0
 6  GORNY, Chris........  3|  2   5   8 -.375|  0|  0   4|  0|  2| 0  5  1|  1
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  3| 13   1  19  .632|  1|  1   1|  0|  3| 0  2  1|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  3|  4   2  11  .182|  2|  2   3|  0|  3| 0  2  1|  0
 11 MORENO, Carlos......  3|  2   1   5  .200| 44|  4   7|  0|  6| 0  3  1|  2
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 51  18 101  .327| 49|  8  20|  0| 25| 1 17  5|  4
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  21 11  48  .208   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  16  5  31  .355   Date: Feb. 1, 2002   Attend: 2,616   Time: 1:40
   3  14  2  22  .545   Referees: Les Calles, Tom Given

PROVO -- BYU outside hitter Joaquin Acosta has been named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Week after leading the Cougars to a pair of 3-0 wins over 12th-ranked USC.

Acosta racked up 25 kills on 39 swings, recording a blistering .590 average over a total of six games. On Friday, the 6-5 senior pounded a team-leading 14 kills with just one error. On Saturday, he tallied 11 more kills with just one error.

On the season, Acosta leads the team with a .447 average, totaling 107 kills on 188 attempts. He has committed just 23 errors on the season, averaging just one error per game.

The Cougars will wrap up their month-long homestand on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 1-2, with a pair of non-conference matches against No. 12 Ohio State (4-1). First serve for both matches is slated for 7 p.m. (MST).

The Buckeyes enter this weekend's matches having won four of their first five matches, including 3-0 wins over George Mason and Juanita College. Since the 1990 season, BYU's first year as an NCAA-sanctioned program, the Cougars have registered a mark of 6-4 against Ohio State, including a record of 3-3 in Provo. BYU and Ohio State last met during the 2000 season, with the Buckeyes claiming back-to-back victories.

This weekend's matches will be the final home contests for the Cougars before taking to the road for the entire month of February. BYU will not play again in the Smith Fieldhouse until Friday, March 1 (vs. Pepperdine).