Cougars Sprint Past UCI; Advance to Semi-finals

PROVO -- After an hour and 22 minutes, the No. 1-ranked BYU men's volleyball team used a balanced offense to sprint past eighth-seeded UC Irvine in the first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament at the Smith Fieldhouse. The game scores for the match were 30-24, 30-23, 30-21.

With the win, the Cougars improve to 25-4 overall, 20-2 in conference, and advance to the semi-finals of the MPSF tournament. As the highest remaining seed, BYU will host both the semi-final and final matches at the Smith Fieldhouse on Apr. 29 and May 1.

"I thought we put together an overall solid match," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "Irvine mixed things up a little, they tried a lot of different things, but we were able to handle whatever they threw at us. They are a well-coached team. They're young, and are going to be a very good team next year."

The Cougars used several players to dominate the match to hit a .443 percentage on the night, having no players in double-digit kills. All-American Jon Alleman and junior middle Mike Burke both led the team with nine kills each. Seniors Joe Hillman and Fernando Pessoa both added eight kills, and sophomore middle Victor Batista chipped in seven kills for the match. Three players -- Burke, Hillman and Batista -- led in hitting percentage with a .538 average.

Cougar setter Carlos Moreno, MPSF Player of the Year, finished the night with 38 assists, moving him past Hector Lebron into second place among BYU's all-time assist leaders. After the win over UC Irvine, Moreno has totaled 4, 391 assists after three years and needs 258 more assists to pass Jason Watson to become BYU's all-time assist leader.

UC Irvine finished its season at 14-18 overall and 8-14 in the MPSF. For the Anteaters, Kyle Weichert led the team with 11 kills out of 15 attempts, while committing no hitting errors and averaging a .733 percentage on the night.

"Irvine is a scary team," Peterson said. "It is nice to get back on track and beat a good team in three games. I think it shows we are focused for the long haul, hopefully four more games. These were big games for us tonight."

BYU combined for 12 team blocks to control the match, while the Anteaters tallied only 3.5 team blocks. Batista led the team with eight blocks and Burke contributed two service aces and four block assists. The Cougars also remained strong in passing with Alleman leading with 10 digs and libero Shawn Olmstead pitching in six digs.

"I thought we had some good touches on the ball," Peterson said. "We did a nice job digging the ball, we have to get good touches like that. That is what makes or breaks a national championship season."

BYU will take on the Waves of Pepperdine in the semi-final round of the tournament on Thursday, Apr. 29 at the Smith Fieldhouse. The first serve is set for 7 p.m. (MST). Following the Cougars' match, UCLA will face off against Long Beach State for the 9 p.m. match at the Fieldhouse. Tickets for next week's matches will go on sale on Monday and can be purchased at the Marriott Center Ticket Office.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                        2004 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
        UC Irvine vs BRIGHAM YOUNG (Apr 24, 2004 at Brigham Young Univ.)
    UC Irvine              |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  BEMUS, Spencer......  3|  5   3  11  .182|  0|  0   0|  1|  1| 0  1  1|  0|   5.5
 2  PELZEL, Jimmy.......  3|  5   4  16  .062|  0|  0   4|  0|  5| 0  1  0|  0|   5.5
 8  REID, Brett.........  3|  2   1   3  .333| 39|  1   1|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 14 WEBBER, Matt........  3|  7  10  23 -.130|  0|  0   3|  0|  4| 1  1  0|  0|   8.5
 15 SMITH, David........  3|  8   3  13  .385|  0|  0   8|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   8.5
 16 WEICHERT, Kyle......  3| 11   0  15  .733|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|  11.5
 6  FORD, Greg..........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  SPITTLE, Paul.......  1|  1   0   3  .333|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 11 JABLONSKY, Jayson...  2|  4   1  10  .300|  0|  0   4|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   4.0
 12 FELL, BJ............  2|  1   1   2  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 44  23  96  .219| 39|  1  20|  3| 23| 1  5  1|  0|  48.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 3.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  6  25  .320   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  13 11  38  .053   UC Irvine........... 24 23 21  14-18, 8-14
   3  17  6  33  .333   BRIGHAM YOUNG....... 30 30 30  25-4, 20-2
    BRIGHAM YOUNG          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  BURKE, Michael......  3|  9   2  13  .538|  1|  2   3|  0|  0| 0  4  0|  1|  13.0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  3|  0   1   1-1.000| 38|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  4  1|  1|   2.0
 11 HILLMAN, Joe........  3|  8   1  13  .538|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0|   9.5
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  3|  9   1  17  .471|  1|  0   2|  0| 10| 0  1  0|  0|   9.5
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  3|  8   3  19  .263|  1|  0   3|  0|  3| 0  4  1|  0|  10.0
 18 BATISTA, Victor.....  3|  7   0  12  .583|  0|  1   3|  0|  1| 0  8  2|  0|  12.0
 2  RANGEL, Steffin.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 7  GORNY, Chris........  2|  2   0   4  .500|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 10 CARPENTER, Cory.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  6| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 20 EVANS, TAYLOR.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 43   8  79  .443| 41|  3  13|  1| 24| 0 24  4|  2|  58.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  3  24  .542   Site: Brigham Young Univ. (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  13  5  32  .250   Date: Apr 24, 2004   Attend: 1946   Time: 1h 22m
   3  14  0  23  .609   Referees: Verna Klubbin, Burt Fuller

PROVO -- On Saturday, April 24 at 7 p.m. the top-ranked BYU men's volleyball team will begin post-season play as the team plays host to UC Irvine in the first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament at the Smith Fieldhouse.

BYU (24-4, 20-2 MPSF) clinched the outright regular-season title and will compete as the No. 1 seed in the tournament, while the Anteaters (14-17, 7-7 MPSF) are seeded eighth. The Anteaters qualified for the tournament as the eighth seed with wins over UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge last week. The Anteaters upset No. 6 Hawaii, No. 8 UC Santa Barbara and No. 5 Cal State Northridge to end the regular season.

"UC Irvine is a hot team right now," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "They have won six of their last eight matches against good conference teams. We can't take them lightly because their players have more experience now then when they started the season. We have to begin the match playing well and get things going."

Irvine hosted BYU on February 26 and 28 during the regular season, when the Cougars extended their win streak to 10 matches after two four-game wins at Crawford Court. In the series opener with the Anteaters, the Cougars started game one with a scorching .706 percentage, hitting 13 kills on 17 attempts with only one attack error. Defense was a key for the team, racking up 31 digs and 11.5 total blocks compared with UCI's eight blocks and 22 digs. In the second match, BYU came back to dominate the match after dropping game one. Mike Burke had come back from his preseason shoulder injury and claimed 15 kills in 19 attempts and a match-high .737 percentage.

The match on Thursday will be the 24th meeting between the two teams, with BYU holding a 25-5 overall record over UC Irvine. At home, BYU holds a 7-4 record over UCI.

After overcoming USC last week in a three-game sweep on Thursday and a five-game thriller on Saturday, the Cougars sealed its position as the top seed in the MPSF tournament. BYU continues to sit atop the conference for the eighth-straight week and rank No.1 in the AVCA Coaches' Poll for the seventh-straight week. Only the top eight teams from the MPSF compete in the tournament, and 2004 marks BYU's eighth-straight trip to the post season and the tenth appearance since the program began in 1990.

The Cougars met UCI in 2001 for the first round of the MPSF Tournament, advancing after a 3-1 victory over the Anteaters to the Semi-finals against Hawai`i. The Warriors defeated BYU 3-1, but the Cougars earned the NCAA automatic bid to the Final Four, eventually bringing home the second national championship for BYU.

The winner of the first-round match between BYU and UCI will play the winner of the Pepperdine-Cal State Northridge match on Thursday, April 29 at 7 p.m. If the Cougars win and advance to the next round, they will host the MPSF Semi-finals and Finals at the Smith Fieldhouse. Should the Cougars lose to the Anteaters, the tournament will move to the home court of the highest remaining seed after the first round of competition.

MPSF TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Saturday, April 24
#8 UC Irvine at #1 BYU (7 p.m.)
#7 UC Santa Barbara at #2 Long Beach State
#6 Hawai'i at #3 UCLA
#5 CS Northridge at #4 Pepperdine
Thursday, April 29
CS Northridge or Pepperdine vs. BYU or UC Irvine - 7 p.m.
UC Santa Barbara or Long Beach State vs. Hawaii or UCLA - 9 p.m.
Saturday, May 1
Championship Match - 7:30 p.m.
(All times listed are MDT)