PROVO -- For the third time in school history, the UC San Diego men's volleyball team won a game against BYU Saturday night. That one game, however, was followed by three more that ended in a 3-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation victory for the Cougars in front of 2,375 fans in the George Albert Smith Fieldhouse in Provo.

Again the match came down to errors and blocking--the team that had the least errors and the most blocks won, and this time that team was BYU. The Cougars (7-1, 7-1 MPSF) out-blocked the Tritons (3-8, 0-7 MPSF) 16.0 to 12.5 and recorded 12 less errors overall in the 28-30, 30-23, 30-27, 30-22 win.

"We were just too up, too down, too emotional and too non-emotional tonight," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "Our team lives and dies by emotion, not execution."

Overall, the Cougars hit a .258 percentage as a team, recording 56 kills on 124 attempts with 24 errors. The key to the match was the blocking, led by middle blocker Chris Gorny who registered two solo blocks and nine total blocks.

Outside hitter Rafael Paal recorded a team-high 14 kills, but his .303 hitting percentage (14-4-33) didn't match up to Michael Burke's .471 with nine kills on 17 attempts and only one error. Senior Jaime Mayol contributed 13 kills (.348), six digs and three blocks, while junior Jonathan Alleman recorded his eighth double-digit kill performance in as many matches this season.

Andy Toren led the Tritons with a match-high 16 kills on 35 attempts (.286) while Jim Waller, who led UC San Diego Friday night with 15 kills, registered only seven kills with a -.083 hitting percentage before being taken out of the match in game three.

"UC San Diego can do some good things," Peterson said. "Their best player got taken out of the match...but they were still in it. I just saw them make play after play. They kept coming back on us."

After tying the game score with one each, the Cougars took a ten-point lead in game three, only to let the Tritons come back to a two-point deficit at 28-26. The Tritons earned a 27th point on what looked like a kill but instead was called as a Cougar error. After a brief time out, the Cougars ended the game with a Carlos Moreno-assisted kill by Burke followed by Alleman's solo service ace of the night.

BYU took a ten-point lead again in game four and managed to keep a wider point spread through the game, but UC San Diego still rallied back to a 29-22 deficit after being behind 23-13. In the end, it all came down to a Triton service error, and the match ended with a 3-1 win for the Cougars.

Next week the Cougars travel to California to take on UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 14 and 15. BYU returns home to play No. 2 Hawaii Thursday and Friday, Feb. 20 and 21 at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse and Marriott Center (Feb. 21).

Box Score
                        2003 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
          UC San Diego vs Brigham Young (Feb 08, 2003 at Provo, Utah)
    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
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  WALLER, Jim.........  3|  7   9  24 -.083|  0|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  2  0|  0
 5  YOUNG, T.J..........  3|  7   5  20  .100|  1|  2   0|  2|  2| 0  2  0|  0
 6  KEYSER, Kevin.......  4|  2   2  10  .000|  0|  1   3|  0|  2| 1  7  1|  0
 10 TOREN, Adam.........  4| 16   6  35  .286|  1|  1   3|  1|  7| 0  0  2|  0
 17 RUPP, Andy..........  4|  6   4  14  .143|  0|  1   4|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  1
 18 PERRINE, Eric.......  4|  2   1   4  .250| 43|  1   3|  1|  9| 0  4  1|  1
 3  URTON, Jeff.........  4|  6   3  19  .158|  1|  0   3|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 11 MORTIMER, Chris.....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  6| 0  0  0|  0
 12 FOOTT, Brian........  4|  4   2  11  .182|  0|  1   2|  0|  1| 1  3  1|  0
 14 THORESON, Tye.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 50  32 137  .131| 46|  7  20|  6| 35| 2 21  5|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12  7  34  .147   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  12  7  32  .156   UC San Diego........ 30 23 27 22  3-8, 0-7 MPSF
   3  14  9  33  .152   Brigham Young....... 28 30 30 30  7-1, 7-1 MPSF
   4  12  9  38  .079
    Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  BURKE, Michael......  4|  9   1  17  .471|  0|  2   0|  0|  2| 0  4  0|  0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  4|  5   3  11  .182| 47|  1   3|  0|  3| 1  3  1|  1
 6  GORNY, Chris........  4|  5   5  11  .000|  0|  1   2|  0|  5| 2  7  1|  0
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  4| 13   5  23  .348|  2|  0   6|  1|  6| 1  2  1|  1
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  4| 14   4  33  .303|  3|  1   4|  3|  8| 0  2  1|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  4| 10   6  29  .138|  0|  1   2|  0|  9| 1  4  0|  1
 15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn.....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  3|  7| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 56  24 124  .258| 52|  6  17|  7| 40| 5 22  4|  3
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 16.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12  8  29  .138   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  16  4  33  .364   Date: Feb 08, 2003   Attend: 2375   Time: 2:10
   3  13  9  27  .148   Referees: Burt Fuller, Tom Given, Erin Yamashita
   4  15  3  35  .343

PROVO -- The third-ranked BYU men's volleyball team hosts UC San Diego Friday and Saturday, Feb. 7 and 8 in the Smith Fieldhouse. This Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matchup marks the 13th meeting between the Cougars and Tritons, with BYU holding a 12-0 advantage in the series.

"BYU has had great success against UC San Diego in the past," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "That worries me because for us to become better we can't relax at all. We can't play down coming off those big wins over UCLA."

The Cougars have earned a 5-1 record on the season, making their home-court debut last week with two 3-0 wins over UCLA. This weekend Peterson hopes to give more players some time on the court and give them some real competitive experience. If the scores favor the Cougars, fans can expect to see some younger players getting more time in the middle and on the outside this weekend.

The Tritons are currently 0-5 on the season (3-6 overall), coming off back-to-back MPSF losses against fourth-ranked Pepperdine and USC.

"UC San Diego was ranked 15th last week and fell out of the rankings because of those losses," Peterson said. "But the Tritons are still a good team."

Both matches begin at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. Due to construction next to the Fieldhouse, fans will again enter through the large annex doors on the west side of the building. Tickets are available for $6 at the door starting an hour and a half before game time or at the Marriott Center Ticket Office, (801)378-BYU1.