PROVO -- In the first loss since Jan. 17 and the fourth of the season, the No. 1-ranked BYU men's volleyball team could not hold off a resilient UCLA team that bounced back from a 2-0 deficit, ending the Cougars' 21-match win streak.

With the win, the third-ranked Bruins improve to 21-5 and 15-4 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. BYU dropped to 22-4 and 18-2 in league play. The game scores were 30-28, 30-26, 22-30, 27-30, 9-15.

"The momentum just switched in the last few games," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "They started playing well, and we couldn't keep it up."

The Cougars were strong enough to put together a 3-1 victory on Thursday at Pauley Pavilion, but UCLA finished the last three games on Friday hitting over .400 as a team.

The Bruins gained a huge advantage in the serving category, posting 10 service aces on the night with four of the 10 coming from Paul Johnson. Setter Dennis Gonzalez and J.T. Wenger picked up the slack with two and three aces, respectively. UCLA also finished the match barely out-hitting BYU 73 to 72 and taking a 10.5 to 9 blocking advantage.

"They also started serving tough serves at us, which was a key to the match," Peterson said. "We didn't keep up with them in serving, but it was still a good match. Now we come back to the Fieldhouse, which is good, and back to the drawing board to get better. The negative thing is the loss broke our win streak but now it makes us focus even harder. Now we can start another win streak."

Senior outside hitter Fernando Pessoa had another consistent performance despite the loss with a career-high 26 kills and pitched in nine digs, while hitting a .452 clip for the match.

Seniors Joe Hillman and Jonathan Alleman posted 16 and 14 kills, respectively, and combined for five block assists and four digs. Junior middle Michael Burke chipped in nine kills for a .500 average and three blocks, while senior libero Shawn Olmstead added 10 digs and three assists. Junior All-American Carlos Moreno paced the Cougars with 66 assists, seven digs and three blocks for the match.

UCLA finished the match with a balanced attack including four players in double-digit kills. Marcen Jagoda led with 15 kills and two blocks, producing a match-high .667 percentage (15-1-21). Chris Pena and J.T. Wenger both contributed 12 kills each and Kris Kraushaar added 13 kills. Johnson and Steve Klosterman both added eight kills. Gonzalez paced the Bruins with 59 assists, seven blocks and four block assists.

BYU returns home to host USC in the last two regular-season matches on Apr. 15 and 17. Thursday's match will be broadcast on KBYU locally and BYUTV nationally. Saturday's match is Senior Night to honor the seven seniors on the Cougar squad.

To view the detailed boxscore, click the pdf version above.

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
               BYU Cougars vs UCLA BRUINS (Apr 09, 2004 at UCLA)
   BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3  Michael Burke.......  5|  9   2  14  .500|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  3  2|  0|  10.5
5  Carlos Moreno.......  5|  2   2   4  .000| 66|  0   4|  0|  7| 1  2  2|  3|   4.0
10 Cory Carpenter......  5|  4   3  11  .091|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  5  1|  0|   6.5
11 Joe Hillman.........  5| 16   8  33  .242|  0|  1   4|  2|  2| 0  3  1|  0|  18.5
12 Jonathan Alleman....  5| 14   4  22  .455|  2|  2   3|  2|  2| 0  2  0|  0|  17.0
17 Fernando Pessoa.....  5| 26   7  42  .452|  1|  0   3|  3|  9| 0  1  0|  0|  26.5
2  Steffin Rangel......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
7  Chris Gorny.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
14 Rob Neilson.........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
15 Shawn Olmstead......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  3| 10| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
20 Taylor Evans........  3|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  1|  0|   1.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  5| 72  26 127  .362| 72|  3  17| 10| 35| 1 16  7|  3|  84.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  2  29  .517   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  20  7  34  .382   BYU Cougars......... 30 30 22 27  9  22-4, 18-2
   3  14  8  23  .261   UCLA BRUINS......... 28 26 30 30 15  21-5, 15-5
   4  15  6  29  .310
   5   6  3  12  .250
   UCLA BRUINS            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3  Dennis Gonzalez.....  5|  1   0   2  .500| 59|  2   5|  1|  7| 0  4  2|  2|   5.0
5  Paul Johnson........  5|  8   0  15  .533|  1|  4   5|  0|  1| 1  4  1|  0|  15.0
7  Jonathan Acosta.....  4|  4   5  13 -.077|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   4.5
14 Steve Klosterman....  2|  8   6  17  .118|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  1|  0|   8.0
21 Chris Pena..........  5| 12   2  22  .455|  5|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  0|  13.0
26 Kris Kraushaar......  5| 13   3  27  .370|  1|  1   2|  1|  5| 0  0  0|  0|  14.0
4  J.T. Wenger.........  5| 12   2  23  .435|  0|  3   4|  0|  1| 2  1  0|  0|  17.5
19 Saul Zemaitaitis....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
24 Adam Shrader........  5|  0   1   1-1.000|  2|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
33 Marcin Jagoda.......  3| 15   1  21  .667|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 1  1  0|  0|  16.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  5| 73  20 141  .376| 68| 10  21|  3| 21| 4 13  5|  2|  93.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  7  33  .364   Site: UCLA (Pauley Pavilion)
   2  14  7  35  .200   Date: Apr 09, 2004   Attend: 1909   Time: 2:21
   3  16  3  29  .448   Referees: John Martin, Joe Sloat
   4  17  3  32  .438
   5   7  0  12  .583

PROVO -- After downing UC San Diego last week, the No. 1-ranked BYU men's volleyball team (21-3, 17-1 MPSF) will make its final road trip of the regular season to UCLA on Apr. 8-9. The match begins at 7 p.m. (PST) at Pauley Pavilion.

The Cougars broke a school record on Friday with their 19-straight victory and then added one more on Saturday to make a 20-match win streak. With the two wins, BYU has now posted another season with over 20 wins, the seventh time in the program's 15-year history.

"UCLA is playing very well and their team is very deep," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "These matches determine what happens in play-offs and the rankings at the end of the season. It is a huge weekend for us. We need to be more disciplined in every aspect of our play."

With a league-leading 17-1 record, the Cougars have already clinched a MPSF Tourney first-round home match on Apr. 24. BYU alsocontinues to sit atop the conference for the sixth straight week and in first place of the AVCA Coaches' Poll for the fifth straight week, earning a unanimous selection with all 16 first-place votes. With a 17-1 league record, the Cougars own a three-match lead over second-place Long Beach State. BYU needs to win at least one match against UCLA to clinch home-court advantage in the MPSF Tournament.

The match on Thursday will be the 33rd meeting between the two teams, with UCLA holding a 22-10 overall record over BYU. The Cougars swept the Bruins at home last year, 3-0 in both matches. At the Pauley Pavilion, UCLA holds a 13-2 record.

Taking the match 3-0 last Saturday, the Cougars fought past host UCSD on Saturday at the RIMAC Arena. The Cougars out-hit UCSD, .313 to .221, as well as out-blocking, 13.5 to seven. Leading BYU with his 20th double-digit performance of the season was senior outside hitter Fernando Pessoa with 14 kills and six digs, while hitting a .458 clip for the match. Junior middle Michael Burke and senior opposite Joe Hillman also remained solid with 10 kills each, with Burke hitting a .714 percentage (10-0-14).

In its record-setting match on Friday, the team defeated UCSD, 3-1. The match was played in front of a season-high UCSD home crowd of 612. BYU hit .500, including an impressive .800 (17-1-20) in game one, while UCSD hit .300. Joe Hillman and Jon Alleman led the Cougars with 14 kills apiece, both hitting over .500 average for the match. Mike Burke Burke also registered a blistering career-high .786 hitting percentage (11-0-14), while adding two blocks during the match.

In MPSF action last week, UCLA used a balanced offensive attack to defeat No. 4 Pepperdine in three games on Saturday night at Firestone Fieldhouse. The Bruins won by scores of 30-26, 30-25, 30-25 before 2,657 fans in 84 minutes. UCLA improved to 20-4 on the season and 14-4 in MPSF play, while the Waves fell to 15-7 on the year and 11-7 in conference action. UCLA posted a .427 hitting percentage while Pepperdine registered a .385 hitting attack.

Against Pepperdine, J.T. Wenger, Paul Johnson and Chris Pena each tallied 13 kills for UCLA. Wenger registered a double-double as he also recorded 10 digs. Freshman Steve Klosterman added 11 kills an ace and a solo block. Senior libero Adam Shrader led both teams with 11 digs, and sophomore setter Dennis Gonzalez contributed 50 assists.

UCLA also defeated No.15 USC in four games Tuesday night at Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins won 3-1 in two hours in front of 702 fans. Against USC, five UCLA players recorded double-digit kills led by freshman opposite Steve Klosterman's 16 kills and 20.5 points. Junior Paul Johnson was next with 15 kills, followed by 14 from senior Chris Pena and 12 from Kris Kraushaar.

The Cougars play their last regular-season home match on Apr. 15 and 17 against No. 15 USC. KBYU will broadcast the match on Apr. 15, also available on BYU-TV nationally. Saturday, Apr. 17 will be Senior Night to honor the seven seniors on the squad. Both matches start at 7 p.m. (MST) in the Smith Fieldhouse.