PROVO -- The BYU Cougars overcame their second-night performance woes to blank fourth-ranked Long Beach State 30-26, 30-22, 30-22 in their final home match of the regular season. The third-ranked Cougars hit a team season-high .494 attack percent and out-blocked the 49ers 13.0 to 5.0 to improve their record to 18-5 (16-4 MPSF) on the year, while Long Beach fell to 15-10 (9-9 MPSF) on the season.

Senior Jaime Mayol led the Cougars with 16 kills, hitting .478, and added one ace and four blocks. Jonathan Alleman was back in form tonight, hitting .545 with 14 kills, two aces and five digs. Michael Burked added a match-high eight blocks while hitting .625 (-0-8).

"Our guys hit very well," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "That's one of our best efforts. It was a good time for Jonathan Alleman to find his game. Last night he hit negative and tonight he hit .545, with 22 swings mostly from the back row--I thought that was huge. We hit .494 as a team against Long Beach; I've never seen that."

In the first game Mayol was on fire, recording eight of the Cougars' 21 kills and rallying the team with his enthusiasm. The 49ers kept it close through much of the game, but BYU out-blocked 4.0 to 2.0 and its momentum was unstoppable.

Game two was owned by the Cougars as they hit a blistering .700 as a team and Long Beach struggled defensively with digs and blocks. BYU took a sizable lead early on and never gave Long Beach a chance to catch up. With the score close at 11-9, BYU went on a 10-4 run to earn an eight-point lead which they would never relinquish, winning the game 30-22.

In game four the Cougars out-hit the 49ers .522 to .182 and out-blocked them 6.5 to 1.0 for a quick 30-22 win and the match.

Scott Touzinsky led the 49ers with a match-high 18 kills while hitting .375. Jeff Wootton chipped in 11 kills on a .471 attack percent and setter Tyler Hildebrand added 46 assists for Long Beach.

BYU had one of its best nights of the season, and it came at a crucial time against a highly ranked team when conference titles and National Tournament berths are on the line.

"You've got to be great at the end," Peterson said. "Tonight we were, and I hope we will be two weekends from now (against Pepperdine)."

BYU will have next weekend off, but will travel to Malibu to face top-ranked Pepperdine on April 11 and 12 in two matches that will decide the MPSF regular-season title. Both matches will begin at 7:00 p.m. (PST) and live audio will be available through the byucougars.com Web site.

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                              Volleyball Box Score
                        2003 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
    No.4 Long Beach St vs Brigham Young (Mar 29, 2003 at Brigham Young Univ)
    No.4 Long Beach St     |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  WOOTTON, Jeff.......  3| 11   3  17  .471|  0|  0   1|  2|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 5  HILDEBRAND, Tyler...  3|  0   1   1-1.000| 46|  0   1|  0|  4| 1  0  1|  0
 9  TOUZINSKY, Scott....  3| 18   6  32  .375|  0|  0   3|  0|  2| 0  3  1|  0
 14 SLITI, Yassir.......  2|  2   3   8 -.125|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 21 LEE, David..........  3|  7   1  10  .600|  0|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  1  1|  0
 24 TARR, Robert........  2|  3   2   7  .143|  0|  1   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 4  COE, Clint..........  1|  4   0   5  .800|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 11 KIJEWSKI, Robert....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 16 MEINE, Matt.........  3|  1   4   5 -.600|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 17 BUDINGER, Duncan....  2|  2   2   4  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  0
 20 MUNOZ, Paul.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 48  22  89  .292| 46|  1  13|  3| 13| 1  8  4|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  7  32  .281   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15  4  24  .458   No.4 Long Beach St.. 26 22 22  15-10,9-9 MPSF
   3  17 11  33  .182   Brigham Young....... 30 30 30  18-5, 16-4 MPSF
    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......  3|  5   0   8  .625|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 2  6  1|  0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  3|  2   0   4  .500| 47|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  4  0|  0
 6  GORNY, Chris........  3|  7   1  11  .545|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  4  0|  0
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  3| 16   5  23  .478|  0|  1   0|  0|  1| 0  4  1|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  3|  7   3  11  .364|  2|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  1  2|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  3| 14   2  22  .545|  1|  2   1|  1|  5| 0  2  0|  0
 1  PATTERSON, Casey....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 4  HILLMAN, Joe........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  3|  1   1   2  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 52  12  81  .494| 51|  3   9|  1| 18| 2 22  5|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  21  7  38  .368   Site: Brigham Young Univ (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  17  3  20  .700   Date: Mar 29, 2003   Attend: 2289   Time: 1:30
   3  14  2  23  .522   Referees: TOM GIVEN, LES CALLES, TRENT MANO

PROVO -- The Cougars are set to play their last two regular-season home matches this weekend, March 28 and 29, against Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rival Long Beach State. These could prove to be two of the biggest home matches of the year for BYU in its second top-five matchup of the season.

Third ranked BYU (16-5, 14-4 MPSF) split a pair of matches last weekend with No. 7 Cal State Northridge, while fourth-ranked Long Beach State 15-8, 9-7 MPSF) is coming off a win over USC and a loss to top-ranked Pepperdine. Both teams have won seven of their last nine contests. In the series, Long Beach leads 12-6 since 1990, but the teams have split their last ten matches.

"We're ranked third and Long Beach is the fourth-ranked team," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "These are just great matches coming up. We're going to need a huge crowd and we're going to need our seniors to have good matches. We'll need everything we've got to win these last two home matches."

Three seniors on the BYU team will be playing their last regular-season matches in the Smith Fieldhouse this weekend. A brief ceremony will be held before the start of Saturday's match to honor Luka Slabe, Jaime Mayol and Rafael Paal. Each has different feelings about playing their last matches in the Smith Fieldhouse, but they all have the common goal of winning and making it to the championships.

"It all happened too fast." Slabe said. "I'm going to step up and play hard to beat Long Beach both nights. We want to have a good seed in the conference tournament, and we can't afford any losses. We want to win and go to the final four."

Both Slabe and Mayol were members of the 2001 team that won the National Championship.

"Our seniors have gone through a lot," Peterson said. "I want to honor them and make it special for them. We'll have to win this weekend for them, for us, for the whole team. We have to win to maintain anything we have. These are huge matches."

BYU is already guaranteed an MPSF Tournament berth, but it is in close competition with the rest of the top five teams to host the tournament. With No. 4 Long Beach this weekend and two matches at top-ranked Pepperdine in April to close out the season, the Cougars face some crucial competition and will have to give everything they've got to stay on top.

Both matches against Long Beach will be held at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. Friday night BYU's Black Student Union will perform at halftime, and Saturday night the seniors will be recognized just before the match and the BYU Breakdance Club will perform between games two and three. Tickets can be purchased at the door up to 90 minutes before game time or in advance at the Marriott Center Ticket Office.