PROVO -- The BYU men's volleyball team bounced back from its first loss of the season with a 30-22, 30-21, 30-27 sweep of the Cal Baptist Lancers Saturday night thanks to an all-around team effort. With the victory, the Cougars improved to 4-1 on the season while the Lancers fell to 3-2.

BYU Head Coach Tom Peterson said that consistency was the main adjustment the team made after Friday night's emotional loss.

"We didn't go long periods of ups and downs," Peterson said. "We were more consistent and we shut them down from what they were doing the night before."

While no one player stood out for the Cougars, several players had strong matches. Senior middle blocker Michael Burke had an errorless night, hitting .667 (8-0-12) and finishing with five blocks. Freshman outside hitter Ivan Perez had a team-high 12 kills and junior outside hitter Victor Batista contributed 11. Junior outside hitter Taylor Evans came off the bench to have his best hitting match of the season, finishing with 10 kills and a .571 (10-2-14) hitting percentage. All of his kills came in the third game.

Peterson commented that one of the Cougar's strengths evident Saturday was their depth.

"Who are you going to key on?" Peterson said. "That's the strength of our team. Hopefully it will be throughout the year, that you just can't key on one guy."

Seidu Ajanako led Cal Baptist, finishing with a match-high 19 kills while Shaun Dyk chipped in 15 kills. Each player hit for solid percentages of .375 and .400, respectively, but the pair got little help from the rest of the Lancers.

As a team, BYU was on fire, hitting .458 (50-12-83) and finishing 10.5 team blocks. The Lancers were limited to a .243 (49-24-103) percentage and finished with seven blocks.

The Cougars came out determined in game one to erase the disappointment of Friday night's loss and jumped out to a 7-2 lead. Baptist fought back, tying the game at 10 but BYU weathered the storm and took the lead for good on a kill by senior opposite hitter Casey Patterson. From there the Cougars were in the driver's seat on their way to a 30-22 win. Burke had five kills and two blocks for the game while Batista had four kills and junior setter Rob Neilson dished out 11 assists.

The second game was much like the first with BYU jumping out to an early lead at 4-1. The Lancers kept the game close, pulling to within a point on several occasions, lastly at 12-11. Burke then took over, getting a kill and serving four straight points, including an ace, to increase the lead to 17-11. Batista and Patterson each contributed four kills while Burke added three to help the Cougars win 30-21.

Game three was more of a struggle for BYU as Cal Baptist rallied to take the 24-22 lead after trailing for much of the game. The Cougars refused to let the Lancers take the game as Batista notched a kill and a block by the freshmen pair of Russell Holmes and Perez tied the game at 24. Back-to-back hitting errors by Baptist gave BYU the 26-24 lead and two kills by Evans, a block by Burke and Perez, and a Perez kill sealed the victory at 30-27, giving the match to the Cougars.

The story of game three was the play of Evans, who replaced Patterson at the opposite hitter position and had 10 kills. Evans had struggled in previous matches with his hitting but came on strong to provide a boost for the BYU offense, which hit a scorching .630 (19-2-27) for the game.

The crowd was once again loud and energetic, as 3,322 came out to support the Cougars. Peterson wanted to thank the crowd for their part in the win.

"For one thing, I'd like to thank the crowd," Peterson said. "Cal Baptist is not a name school and we're filling up the stands."

BYU will open Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play on the road next Friday and Saturday with matches against UC Santa Barbara. Friday's match will begin at 7 p.m. while Saturday's will start at 5 p.m.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                      Briham Young University - Volleyball
      Cal Baptist vs Brigham Young Univ. (Jan 15, 2005 at PROVO, UT 84602)
    Cal Baptist            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  AJANAKO, Seidu......  3| 19   7  32  .375|  1|  0   3|  0|  3| 0  2  0|  0|  20.0
 2  LAYTON, Tim.........  3|  6   3  14  .214|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  4  1|  0|   8.0
 4  JOHNSON, Trever.....  3|  1   0   5  .200| 42|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  1|   2.5
 8  ROSE, Sergio........  3|  4   4  10  .000|  0|  0   5|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0|   5.5
 10 VETTER, Romain......  3|  3   3  10  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0|   4.0
 18 DYK, Shaun..........  3| 15   5  25  .400|  0|  1   1|  1|  1| 0  0  0|  0|  16.0
 3  PLUNKETT, Eric......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  ANDERS, Bryan.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 12 HAGSTROM, Tyler.....  3|  0   0   1  .000|  1|  0   0|  0| 10| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 15 NICKERSON, Scott....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 16 SPENCE, Corey.......  3|  1   2   6 -.167|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 41 HINZ, Tyler.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 49  24 103  .243| 45|  1  13|  1| 16| 0 14  1|  1|  57.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  9  32  .219   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  13  8  36  .139   Cal Baptist......... (0) 22 21 27  3-2; 0-0 IND
   3  20  7  35  .371   Brigham Young Univ.. (3) 30 30 30  4-1; 0-0 MPFS
    Brigham Young Univ.    |     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|  8   0  12  .667|  0|  1   1|  0|  1| 2  3  0|  0|  12.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3| 12   3  20  .450|  0|  0   1|  1|  0| 0  2  1|  0|  13.0
 9  PATTERSON, Casey....  3|  6   3  12  .250|  2|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  3  1|  0|   7.5
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  1   1   5  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  4  1|  0|   3.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  3|  2   0   3  .667| 44|  0   0|  0|  2| 1  1  0|  1|   3.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  3| 11   3  16  .500|  1|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  1|  11.5
 2  STEWART, Bryan......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 4  CONGELLIERE, Robert.  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 5  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  HEYES, Matt.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3| 10   2  14  .571|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|  10.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 50  12  82  .463| 47|  1   5|  1| 21| 3 15  3|  2|  61.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  4  27  .370   Site: PROVO, UT 84602 (SMITH FIELDHOUSE)
   2  17  6  28  .393   Date: Jan 15, 2005   Attend: 3322   Time: 1H 30 M
   3  19  2  27  .630   Referees: LES CALLES, TOM GIVEN, KRISTEN MAETANI
                                         1   2   3 Total
                        Tie scores       4   1   3     8
                        Lead changes     1   2   3     6

PROVO -- After finishing the Outrigger Tournament with an unblemished 3-0 record, the BYU men's volleyball team returns to Provo to play its first home matches of the season at the Smith Fieldhouse against California Baptist University Friday and Saturday night. Friday's match will begin at 7:30 p.m. while the Saturday match will start at 7:00 p.m.

Despite only returning two starters from the 2004 National Championship squad, the Cougars defeated Lewis, Penn State, and Hawai'i and are currently ranked No. 3 in the nation by Volleyball Magazine, after starting the season at No. 5. Senior Michael Burke was named the tournament MVP while junior Victor Batista and senior Casey Patterson were also named to the All-Tournament team.

This weekend's matchup against the Cal Baptist Lancers will be BYU's final tune-up before beginning Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play Jan. 21 and 22 at UC Santa Barbara. The Lancers come in as one of the powerhouses of the NAIA, having won three championships in the past six seasons.

"Cal won the NAIA and they are very, very good," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "They're one of the top teams in the country. They have different rules that give them more access to the foreign players so they have some very good players."

Cal Baptist opened the season with matches against UC Irvine and UC San Diego, two MPSF teams. The Lancers made quick work of both teams, earning the 30-24, 30-24, 30-17 sweep of UC Irvine and defeating UC San Diego in three games (30-23, 30-22, 30-25). The Lancers will play two more MPSF teams, Pepperdine and UCLA, before playing the Cougars.

While this is only the second meeting between the two teams, with BYU sweeping the first match in 2001, there are a few connections between Cal Baptist and the Cougars. Rafael Paal, who played for BYU from 2002-03, started his career with the Lancers. Tim Layton, who was also a member of the Cougars from 2002-03, now plays for Cal Baptist.

BYU's trip to Hawai'i was successful not only because the Cougars finished undefeated, but because many new players gained experienced and the coaches were able to try players in different spots in the rotation. Patterson was one player who came up big when given the chance. He came off the bench in the first two matches and provided a needed spark when BYU was struggling with errors and inconsistency. On Friday, he earned the first start of his career and finished with career highs of 19 kills and 10 digs.

"It is nice to see the depth we have at outside and opposite with Casey coming in," Peterson said. "He played both positions coming in for Ivan (Perez) and Taylor (Evans) when they had down periods. Having three guys for two positions is just wonderful."

Peterson was happy with the wins but does not want to get too excited over the recent success.

"It's a cautious optimism just because of momentum swings in volleyball," he said.

Burke hit .439 for the week and averaged 3.38 kills, 1.15 digs, and 1.15 blocks per game. Batista led the Cougars with 4.15 kills per game despite struggling at times with his hitting. Junior setter Rob Neilson was also impressive in his debut as the starting setter. While guiding the BYU offense, he averaged 13.62 assists per game and finished second on the team with .77 blocks per game and third on the team with 1.69 digs per game. He also had kills at key times during the match versus Hawai'i to help the Cougars take the tournament.

The 2005 season marks the third with Peterson at the helm. In 2003, the BYU finished 23-7 and second in the nation after losing to Lewis in the NCAA Championship match. The Cougars returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2004 and defeated Long Beach State in the championship match, giving BYU its third National Championship in six seasons. The Cougars finished the 2004 season with a 29-4 record.