PROVO -- The top-ranked BYU men's volleyball team overcame a game-one loss on Saturday to claim the MPSF Tournament Championship on Saturday and earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA National Championship tournament. After a 27-30 loss in game one, the Cougars fought back to win three straight, 32-30, 30-28, 30-24 and improve to 27-4 on the season.

"We were passing the ball well tonight," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "Carlos [Moreno] was able to set anybody and Joe [Hillman] had a great match. He's the key to our team's success tonight. When we're able to hit well from the right side, we're hard to beat. It was a good team effort."

The Cougars hit an impressive .422 for the match, connecting on 72 kills on 135 swings with just 15 errors. Hillman posted a match-high 19 kills with only three errors to record a .500 average. Middle blocker Michael Burke also hit with high efficiency, racking up 14 kills on 19 swings with no errors to hit a blistering .737 on the night. Jonathan Alleman had 15 kills, while Pessoa tacked on 14 for the Cougars.

"Offensively we were very exciting," Peterson said. "I think we were able to frustrate Long Beach State a little."

The 49'ers were led by Jeff Wooton, who totaled a team-leading 17 kills. Scott Touzinsky and Duncan Budinger each had 14 kills for the Beach. With the loss, Long Beach State drops to 27-6 on the season. Despite the loss, head coach Alan Knipe said he was proud of his team, and is looking forward to a few days to prepare for the NCAA tournament in Hawaii.

"It was a great match tonight," Knipe said. "Those games could have gone either way. BYU is a good team with a big crowd. They set off their crowd when they got things going. Give them [BYU] all the credit in the world.

"Our guys felt very confident that they could win those games. I was proud of them in that first game. As the game went on though, we played harder and tried to do too much, we pressed. I'm proud of the guys. Now we've got a few days to prepare for Thursday's match in Hawaii. We're going to give a lot of respect to whoever it is we play on Thursday night."

In game one, after Hillman picked up his sixth kill of the game with a soft tip over the LBSU block to tie the score at 23-23, the 49'ers went on a three-point run to take a 26-23 advantage. A Burke kill cut the Beach lead back to 25-26, but a Robert Tarr kill and a Pessoa net violation gave the 49'ers another three-point advantage at 28-25. Alleman later cut the lead to 27-29, but Touzinsky ended the game with his team-leading fifth kill of the game.

"I was proud about the first game," Knipe said. "We stuck to our game plan, and with a big crowd and a championship game on the line, we didn't try to do too much."

In game two, Long Beach State held a four-point advantage after a David Lee put the 49'ers up 27-23. Down four points with only a few more serves remaining in the game, it looked as though Long Beach State would take a 2-0 lead in the match. However, the Cougars went on a 4-0 run to cut the deficit to 26-27. After a LBSU timeout, Hillman picked up his second straight kill to tie the game at 27-27. The two teams traded serves through a 30-30 tie before back-to-back Long Beach State errors gave the Cougars a hard-fought 32-30 victory.

"I don't know what it is that gets us into a rhythm like that," Peterson said. "It's not because we're too relaxed. We just need to be more consistent with our ball control. Long Beach State does that very well. They excel in serve and serve-receive."

Knowing game two got away from them, the 49'ers fought back to take a five-point lead in game three and looked to be in control once again. However, with a crowd of nearly 3,200 packed in to the Smith Fieldhouse behind them, the Cougars came charging back. A LBSU attack error tied things up at 22-22, then after trading serves, Moreno recorded the Cougars' only ace of the match to give BYU a 24-23 lead and bring the crowd to its feet. Victor Batista and Chris Gorny tag-teamed to block a Long Beach State attack, giving the Cougars a three-point advantage, 26-23. Touzinsky tied things up at 27-27 before BYU took a 29-28 advantage. The game ended on the very next play when Burke and Moreno registered another block for the Cougars.

In the final game of the match, BYU took and early lead and never looked back. The Cougars took a late six-point advantage at 26-0 and cruised to the finish line with a 30-24 win to complete the come-from-behind victory.

With the win, the top-ranked Cougars are the likely choice for the top seed at the NCAA Championships in Honolulu, which is scheduled to begin Thursday, May 6. Peterson said he expects to face Lewis University, the team that defeated the Cougars last season in the NCAA National Championship match.

"I don't want to say I'm excited too much," Peterson said. "We still have two more matches to win. I would guess we will be playing Lewis University. They are a very good team. They're probable the hot team right now out of the Midwest. We'll have to be prepared, we will not be looking past Lewis."

                              Volleyball Box Score
                        2004 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
       No. 2 Long Beach St. vs BRIGHAM YOUNG (May 01, 2004 at Provo, Ut)
    No. 2 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|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  Wootton, Jeff.......  0| 17   6  31  .355|  2|  0   5|  0|  8| 0  3  1|  0|  18.5
 5  Hildebrand, Tyler...  0|  3   1   6  .333| 60|  2   1|  0|  5| 0  5  0|  1|   7.5
 9  Touzinsky, Scott....  0| 14  12  41  .049|  0|  0   4|  0|  6| 0  3  1|  0|  15.5
 17 Budinger, Duncan....  0| 14   2  19  .632|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0|  15.5
 21 Lee, David..........  0|  5   4  19  .053|  1|  1   2|  0|  3| 0  6  0|  0|   9.0
 24 Tarr, Robert........  0| 14   2  29  .414|  1|  2   2|  0|  4| 0  1  1|  0|  16.5
 4  Coe, Clint..........  0|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 8  Hagstrom, Nathan....  0|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 Kijewski, Robert....  0|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 Sliti, Yassir.......  0|  2   0   2 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  1|   2.0
 20 Munoz, Paul.........  0|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 69  27 147  .286| 66|  5  16|  1| 37| 0 21  3|  2|  84.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  4  34  .412   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  20  6  38  .368   No. 2 Long Beach St. 30 30 28 24  27-6,18-4 MPSF
   3  13  9  39  .103   BRIGHAM YOUNG....... 27 32 30 30  27-4,20-2 MPSF
   4  18  8  36  .278
    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......  4| 14   0  19  .737|  0|  0   3|  0|  1| 0  7  0|  0|  17.5
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  4|  3   2   7  .143| 66|  1   4|  0|  5| 1  5  1|  1|   7.5
 11 HILLMAN, Joe........  4| 19   3  32  .500|  1|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0|  20.0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  4| 15   4  29  .379|  0|  0   3|  0|  6| 0  5  0|  1|  17.5
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  4| 14   4  25  .400|  1|  0   2|  0| 12| 0  5  2|  0|  16.5
 18 BATISTA, Victor.....  4|  7   2  23  .217|  0|  0   4|  0|  2| 0  8  1|  0|  11.0
 7  GORNY, Chris........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   0.5
 10 CARPENTER, Cory.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn.....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  5| 11| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 20 EVANS, TAYLOR.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 72  15 135  .422| 71|  1  18|  5| 39| 1 33  4|  2|  90.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 17.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  4  38  .421   Site: Provo, Ut (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  20  1  35  .543   Date: May 01, 2004   Attend: 3175   Time: 2H 30M
   3  16  7  34  .265   Referees: KEN TAYLOR, MARVIN HALL, VERNA KLUBNIKIN
   4  16  3  28  .464

PROVO -- The MPSF Championship will feature the top teams in the conference as No. 1 BYU faces No. 2 Long Beach State on Saturday, May 1 in the Smith Fieldhouse. The match is set for 7:30 p.m. (MST). The top-ranked Cougars advanced to the MPSF championship for the fourth time in the school's history, after defeating fourth-ranked Pepperdine on Thursday in the Smith Fieldhouse.

Long Beach State cruised past the Bruins in three games in the other semifinal match on Thursday, with help of four 49er players in double-digits -- Jeff Wootton, Scott Touzinsky, Duncan Budinger and David Lee. This will mark the third time the two teams have met in the MPSF playoffs and the first time the teams have met in the championship match.

The match on Saturday will also be the 23rd meeting overall between the two teams, with Long Beach State holding a 12-10 record over BYU. The Beach holds a 5-4 record in Provo. Long Beach State played BYU earlier this season at the Pyramid, where the Cougars finished the weekend with two close five-game wins. In the first match, the team came back from a 0-2 deficit to upset No. 2 LBSU. BYU was ranked No. 7 on the national poll at the time of the matches.

With five players recording double-digit kills, the Cougars outlasted the 49er lead with a power-charged comeback led by senior Fernando Pessoa at 20 kills and newcomer Victor Batista at 18 kills. Both performances by Pessoa and Batista marked career-highs in kills at the time and a high in hitting percentage, .588, for Batista.

In the second match, BYU handed the 49ers their second loss of the season in a match lasting almost three hours. The two teams battled through until the end, bringing 1,089 fans at the Pyramid to their feet. Winning the first two games, the Cougars had the advantage going into the third game after finishing the second at 39-37.

But LBSU didn't give up too easily, coming back from a 2-0 deficit and taking the match to five games. BYU led the entire fifth game in a grueling 15-13 final, as senior Fernando Pessoa and newcomer Victor Batista hit the last points for the win.

BYU remains the top seed in the MPSF tournament and continues to rank No.1 in the AVCA Coaches' Poll for the eighth-straight week. BYU has advanced to the postseason in the last eight-consecutive years for a total of ten appearances in the MPSF tournament since the program began in 1990.

The Cougars came away with a 3-2 victory on Thursday in the tournament semifinals against fourth-ranked Pepperdine. 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. 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.

Saturday's match will be broadcast on College Sports Television (CSTV), available on DirecTV (channel 610).