PROVO -- In an emotional five-game thriller, the No. 1-ranked BYU men's volleyball team came away with a 3-2 victory in the MPSF tournament semifinals against fourth-ranked Pepperdine at the Smith Fieldhouse. This will be the fourth time the Cougars have advanced to the championship match of the MPSF Tournament.

With over 1,700 fans in attendance, the Cougars have now improved to a 26-4 overall record, including 20-2 in regular MPSF play. Pepperdine dropped to 19-9 overall and 14-8 in the league play.

"As we have done the whole year, this is our most important match to date," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "I thought Pepperdine played very well, especially in three of the five games. I'm just not satisfied with it going down to the end like that."

Both teams looked strong throughout the match, exchanging leads in each of the games. Even with a match-leading .375 percentage, Pepperdine came up short in the final game as BYU finished with a 15-12 score in the fifth. The game scores were 30-27, 27-30, 30-27, 24-30, 15-12. The Cougars led the match with 83 total kills to the Waves' 78.

Senior outside hitter Fernando Pessoa led BYU with 20 kills, hitting a team-leading .457 percentage for the match and adding nine digs. Senior Jon Alleman put together a solid performance with 18 kills and eight digs. Three other Cougars hit double-digit figures including junior middle Mike Burke with 13 kills, senior Joe Hillman with 14 and Victor Batista at 12 kills. Senior libero Shawn Olmstead tied his career-high in digs for the second time this season and setter Carlos Moreno came short of his season high with 74 assists, but posted his first double-double of the season by adding 10 digs.

The two Pepperdine power hitters, senior Fred Winter and junior Sean Rooney, led the Waves with 23 and 24 kills, respectively. Rooney finished with a .444 percentage, while contributing nine digs and two block assists. Winters came away with two service aces and five digs. Junior James Ka lead the way with 11 digs and added seven kills for the match. Sophomore middle Andy Hein posted 14 kills, while hitting a .524 percentage and posting three blocks.

"I think that we had some chances to win the first game," Pepperdine head coach Marv Dunphy said. "We let it slip through our fingers a little bit. BYU played well enough to win and they've been doing that all year long, so I give credit to them. They dug some balls and we didn't convert when we had some chances. We put a little pressure on them; they were bending but they didn't break."

In game one, Pepperdine's Rooney and Winters controlled the match, giving Pepperdine a 18-13 lead. Burke led the Cougars comeback with a kill and a block to bring the Cougars within a point, 21-22. BYU then advanced to its first lead of the match at 23-22 after two Pepperdine errors. With a balanced attack, the Cougars slowly made their way back to a 28-25 lead, after a kill by Pessoa. A Batista kill and a Pepperdine service error gave BYU the win, 30-27.

The Waves secured the lead at 13-12 in game two with a Winters kill. Winters and Rooney combined for 13 kills in the second game to help Pepperdine stay ahead. Alleman posted six kills in game two for BYU, but it was not enough to take the lead. The Waves went on to a 30-27 win, with the help of Rooney's three kills during the last few points.

BYU got off to an early lead at 18-14 in game three, but a series of Cougar errors and a few kills by Winters tied the game at 21. Another big kills by Winters tied the game at 22, giving the Waves the momentum. Two kills by Alleman ended the Pepperdine run, giving the Cougars an advantage on their way to an 8-4 run to finish out the game at 30-27. Pessoa paced BYU with three kills to end game three.

In game four, Pepperdine started off with a 3-2 lead after a kill by Winters and never looked back. Winters finished game four with five kills, while Rooney led with eight to help the Waves to a .500 percentage in the fourth game. Two of Rooney's eight kills put Pepperdine up, 13-10 and again at 24-20. BYU struggled with serving towards the end of game four, with two crucial errors to help Pepperdine finish out with a 30-24 win.

After a kill by Parfitt, Pessoa served six-straight points, including three Alleman kills and two kills by Cougar setter Carlos Moreno. BYU cruised to a 8-3 lead with the help from Mike Burke and a Pepperdine hitting error. The Cougars kept a five-point lead at 13-8, but the Waves chipped away at the lead behind two blocks and a kill by Winters. Pepperdine came within two points, 14-12, but a hitting error from the Waves gave BYU the match victory at 15-12.

BYU will play Long Beach State in the MPSF Championship match on Saturday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                        2004 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
         No. 5 Pepperdine vs BRIGHAM YOUNG (Apr 29, 2004 at PROVO, UT)
    No. 5 Pepperdine       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  HEIN, Andy..........  5| 14   3  21  .524|  0|  0   3|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  0|  15.5
 7  WINTERS, Fred.......  5| 23   9  49  .286|  2|  2   8|  2|  5| 1  1  0|  1|  26.5
 9  KA, James...........  5|  7   1  22  .273|  4|  0   1|  0| 11| 0  0  0|  0|   7.0
 11 MAYER, John.........  5|  3   0   3 1.000| 67|  0   1|  0|  7| 0  3  2|  0|   4.5
 12 ROONEY, Sean........  5| 24   4  45  .444|  3|  0   5|  0|  9| 0  2  0|  0|  25.0
 14 HULSE, Tom..........  4|  2   3   6 -.167|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 1  3  1|  0|   4.5
 4  GLEDHILL, Mike......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 8  DE WOLFF, Arist.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 SUTHERLAND, Tanner..  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 16 PARFITT, John.......  4|  5   1   6  .667|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  1|   5.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 78  21 152  .375| 76|  2  18|  2| 43| 2 12  3|  2|  88.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  4  36  .389   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  18  4  32  .438   No. 5 Pepperdine.... 27 30 27 30 12  19-9,14-8 MPSF
   3  16  6  34  .294   BRIGHAM YOUNG....... 30 27 30 24 15  26-4,20-2 MPSF
   4  19  4  30  .500
   5   7  3  20  .200
    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......  5| 13   3  23  .435|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 1  3  1|  1|  15.5
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  5|  3   7  14 -.286| 74|  0   5|  0| 10| 0  1  0|  1|   3.5
 11 HILLMAN, Joe........  4| 14   4  30  .333|  1|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  2  0|  0|  15.0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  5| 18   5  33  .394|  0|  1   1|  0|  8| 0  1  0|  1|  19.5
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  5| 20   4  35  .457|  1|  0   3|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  0|  20.0
 18 BATISTA, Victor.....  5| 12   4  21  .381|  1|  1   1|  0|  2| 1  1  1|  0|  14.5
 7  GORNY, Chris........  3|  3   1   4  .500|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 10 CARPENTER, Cory.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn.....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1| 12| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 83  28 160  .344| 80|  2  13|  2| 47| 2  8  2|  3|  91.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  22  5  35  .486   Site: PROVO, UT (SMITH FIELDHOUSE)
   2  17 10  40  .175   Date: Apr 29, 2004   Attend: 1756   Time: 2H 25M
   3  17  4  32  .406   Referees: MARVIN HALL, VERNA KLUBNIKIN
   4  17  5  33  .364
   5  10  4  20  .300

PROVO -- With last week's sweep over UC Irvine, the No. 1-ranked BYU men's volleyball team (25-4 overall, 20-2 MPSF) advance to the MPSF semifinals for the sixth time in the school's history, hosting fourth-ranked Pepperdine on Apr. 29 in the Smith Fieldhouse. The match is set for 7 p.m. (MST)

"This should be a great match," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "Pepperdine is a good team with tough players. We'll have to contain their hitters as much as possible. They are a hard matchup for any team. We'll have to pass consistently so our offense won't get out of system."

Pepperdine (19-8 overall, 14-8 MPSF) advanced to the second round after defeating CS Northridge on Saturday. All-Americans Fred Winters and Sean Rooney led the Waves with 18 kills and 15 kills, respectively. This will mark the third-straight year the two teams have met in the MPSF playoffs, with the Waves advancing in the 2002 first round and the Cougars grabbing a 3-2 victory last season in the championships at Firestone Fieldhouse.

As the top remaining seed in the tournament, the Cougars will play at 7 p.m. (MST), while No. 2 UCLA and No. 3 Long Beach State will face off at 9 p.m. (MST) in the second semi-final match.

At the beginning of the season, Pepperdine and BYU faced off in a preseason tournament, where the Waves dominated in both matches. The Cougars rebounded from the losses, overcoming Pepperdine in two, four-game wins at home on Mar. 12-13. The wins over the Waves extended BYU's win streak to 14 matches.

Sophomore Victor Batista gave the Cougars a huge lift in the first match with a blistering .783 percentage, connecting on 18 kills and committing no errors against the Waves. Batista tied his career-best in kills and set a new career-high in hitting percentage. In the second match, both Joe Hillman and Fernando Pessoa posted career highs with 26 and 24 kills, respectively. Setter Carlos Moreno tallied a season high 77 assists in leading the Cougars to a second-straight victory over fifth-ranked Pepperdine.

The match on Thursday will be the 34th meeting between the two teams, with Pepperdine holding a 14-19 overall record over BYU. The Cougars swept the Waves in two matches at home in conference action this year, while Pepperdine swept BYU in a preseason tournament in Malibu. At home, BYU holds a 9-6 record over Pepperdine.

Last week against UC Irvine -- after an hour and 22 minutes -- the No. 1-ranked BYU team used a balanced offense to sprint past eighth-seeded UC Irvine in the first round of the MPSF Tournament at the Smith Fieldhouse. The game scores for the match were 30-24, 30-23, 30-21.

BYU continues to sit atop the conference for the ninth-straight week and rank No.1 in the AVCA Coaches' Poll for the eighth-straight week. BYU has advanced to the post season in the last eight-straight years for a total of ten appearances in the MPSF tournament since the program began in 1990.

The winner of the semi-final match between BYU and Pepperdine will play the winner of the UCLA-Long Beach State match on Saturday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. The Championship match will be broadcast on College Sport Television (CSTV), which is available on DirecTV.

BYU's match on Thursday can be heard through a live audio broadcast found on the men's volleyball schedule.