PROVO -- After a sluggish first game, the No. 7 Cougars took the next three to knock off the No. 10 Anteaters of UC Irvine 3-1 (25-30, 30-27, 30-22, 30-26) Friday to end their three-match losing streak and improve to 8-6 overall and 3-4 in the MPSF. With the loss, the Anteaters stand at 6-11 and 4-8.

While BYU Coach Tom Peterson said he was impressed with his teams ability to comeback after losing the first game, he said they will need to continue to improve.

"We had a challenge on our hands and we got better as the match progressed," he said. "I still think there were a lot of things we need to do better. We had a lot of messed up plays."

Four Cougars hit for double figures as Ivan Perez led the way with 14. Michael Burke contributed 13 while hitting a blistering .550 (13-2-20) and pitching in a match-high seven blocks. Victor Batista, who started at middle blocker for the first time this season, had 12 kills while Ivan Perez had 10 and a match-best nine digs. Rob Neilson guided the offense with 49 assists.

Peterson said that distributing the kills is vital to the BYU's success.

"We like to spread it out," he said. "We don't like them to think they can key on one guy. We can't afford to have one guy have a poor match. We need everyone to hit for a good percentage."

He Cougars hit .275 (59-26-110) on the match and had 16 blocks and 29 digs. UC Irvine hit .175 (51-31-120) and had six blocks and 25 digs. The Anteaters were led by Jayson Jablonsky's 13 kills while former Cougar Steffin Rangel had 12. Brandon Smith was also in double figures with 10.

After a rough first game, the Cougars found their rhythm in the second and swept their way to the win. BYU kept the second game close until going on a 6-0 run to take the lead at 17-12. Burke started the run with a kill and was followed up by kills by Evans and Perez. Patterson served throughout the run and added an ace. The Anteaters kept the game interesting, closing the gap to one at 21-20. BYU regained its composure, scoring the next three to go back up by four. With the score at 29-25, UC Irvine scored the next two, forcing a Cougar timeout. Batista came out of the break and finished the game with a kill, his game-high sixth. Burke, Perez and Evans each added four kills of their own for BYU. The Cougars outhit the Anteaters .324 to .188 for the game.

Game three was all BYU as the Cougars took the lead for good early at 2-1 on an Evans kill. Perez almost single handedly extended the lead from 5-4 to 8-4 as he registered two kills and a block. BYU was in control the rest of the way, going ahead 29-22 before Evans ended the game with an ace. Perez led the Cougars with five kills and two aces while Burke added three kills and three blocks. BYU had four team blocks to none for UC Irvine.

It appeared as if the match would go to five as BYU fell behind 4-0 in the fourth game. The Cougars took a timeout to regroup and came back to close the gap and eventually tie the game at 16. A block by Patterson gave BYU the lead at 17-16 and the Cougars stayed in control from there. The lead grew to 29-23 before UC Irvine scored three-consecutive to make things interesting. Batista had seen enough though as he ended the match with a roll shot past the Anteater block.

UC Irvine controlled the first game after taking the lead at 8-7. BYU led early at 7-5 behind kills from four different players but errors proved costly as the lead slipped away. The Cougars hit just .111 (11-8-27) and allowed the Anteaters to hit at a .379 (18-7-29) clip. Patterson led BYU with four kills and two digs while Jablonsky had a game-high five kills to lead UC Irvine. Rangel and Harrell added four kills each to lead the

Anteaters.

BYU and UC Irvine will square off for a second time Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. The match can be heard on BYU Radio.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                      Briham Young University - Volleyball
             UC Irvine vs Brigham Young (Feb 25, 2005 at Provo UT)
    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
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  THORNTON, Brian.....  4|  1   2   4 -.250| 41|  0   1|  0|  5| 1  0  1|  1|   2.0
 11 JABLONSKY, Jayson...  4| 13   8  26  .192|  1|  1   6|  0|  4| 1  1  0|  0|  15.5
 13 WEBBER, Matt........  4|  7   5  24  .083|  1|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0|   8.0
 15 SMITH, Brandon......  4| 10   3  20  .350|  2|  0   5|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0|  11.5
 21 HARRELL, Aaron......  4|  8   1  13  .538|  0|  1   2|  1|  0| 0  0  1|  0|   9.0
 25 RANGEL, Steffin.....  4| 12   9  28  .107|  0|  1   3|  2|  5| 1  0  0|  0|  14.0
 1  STELLER, Jon........  2|  1   3   5 -.400|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 10 SPITTLE, Paul.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 12 SIMPSON, Brett......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 MEL, Brandon........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1|  8| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 52  31 120  .175| 47|  3  20|  4| 25| 3  6  2|  1|  61.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  7  29  .379   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  12  6  32  .188   UC Irvine........... (1) 30 27 22 26  6-11, 4-8 MPSF
   3  11  6  28  .179   Brigham Young....... (3) 25 30 30 30  8-6, 3-4 MPSF
   4  11 12  31 -.032
    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| 13   2  20  .550|  0|  0   4|  0|  0| 1  6  1|  0|  17.0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  4| 14   6  30  .267|  0|  2   5|  3|  8| 0  4  0|  1|  18.0
 9  PATTERSON, Casey....  4|  8   9  20 -.050|  3|  1   5|  0|  6| 1  5  0|  0|  12.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  2   0   3  .667| 49|  0   1|  0|  3| 2  1  2|  0|   4.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  4| 12   4  25  .320|  0|  0   3|  0|  2| 0  5  1|  0|  14.5
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  4| 10   5  22  .227|  1|  1   4|  0|  4| 0  2  0|  0|  12.0
 2  STEWART, Bryan......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  HEYES, Matt.........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   0.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 59  26 120  .275| 54|  4  23|  3| 29| 4 24  4|  1|  79.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 16.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  8  27  .111   Site: Provo UT (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  18  6  37  .324   Date: Feb 25, 2005   Attend: 3316   Time: 2H
   3  15  4  27  .407   Referees: TOM GIVEN, LES CALLES
   4  15  8  29  .241
                                         1   2   3   4 Total
                        Tie scores       2   9   2   1    14
                        Lead changes     2   5   1   2    10

PROVO -- After a week of rest and practice, the No. 7 BYU Cougars will look to get back into the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation race as they take on the No. 10 Anteaters of UC Irvine Friday and Saturday in the Smith Fieldhouse at 7 p.m.

The Cougars are 7-6 overall and 2-4 in the MPSF after dropping two matches to Pepperdine before their week off. BYU has the chance to pick up lost ground in the MPSF regular season race with the two matches against UC Irvine.

"It was a good weekend to have off," BYU Coach Tom Peterson said. "We tried to concentrate on going longer periods without making errors. We hope that the extra practice will help. Also, it was nice for the guys to be able to catch up on school and get healthy."

The Anteaters have had an up-and-down first half of the 2005 season. While Irvine has struggled to a record 6-10 overall and 4-7 in the MPSF, the Anteaters have earned two wins over No. 7-ranked UC Santa Barbara. Of their ten losses, three have come at the hands of UCLA, Long Beach State and Pepperdine, three of the top five teams in the country. Irvine also dropped a match against Cal Baptist, a very tough NAIA team that split with the Cougars.

Last weekend, Feb. 18 and 19, the Anteaters defeated No. 11 Pacific and were swept by No. 9 Stanford. On Friday, Irvine beat Pacific 3-1 and hit .400 as a team while many players had impressive nights. The Anteaters were a completely different squad Saturday, getting swept by Stanford. Much of Irvine's inconsistent play could be attributed to its youth, as the Anteaters start two freshman, four sophomores and one junior. Their roster does not include a single senior.

"I know that they're a good team but also very young," Peterson said. "It's just a matter of time before they get to be very good. They play teams very tough but lose because of inexperience. We want to make sure they don't become a mature team against us."

Jayson Jablonsky has been the top producer for Irvine, averaging 3.73 kills per game and hitting .318. Fellow outside hitter Jon Stellar is second on the team with 3.40 kills per game. The Anteater's middle blockers Aaron Harrell and David Smith have been impressive all season, leading the team in hitting percentage and blocks per game. Harrell is hitting a team-high .487 and averages a team-best 0.92 blocks per game. Smith is second in both categories, hitting .460 and averaging 0.91 blocks.

The Cougars own a 26-5 advantage in the series between the teams, having won nine consecutive overall against the Anteaters and 13 in a row in the Smith Fieldhouse. The last time the teams met, BYU swept Irvine in the first round of the 2004 MPSF Tournament.

Victor Batista is leading the Cougar offensive attack with an average of 4.08 kills per game, which ranks No. 13 in the country. Ivan Perez is second with a 2.76 average while Michael Burke continues to lead the team with a .476 hitting percentage, the eighth best in the nation. He also leads BYU in blocks, averaging 1.22, good for No. 17 nationally. Also among the national leaders for the Cougars is Rob Neilson, whose 13.36 assists per game is second best.

Peterson said these matches are very important for his team and hopes that the crowd will continue to support the Cougars. BYU is leading the nation in attendance with an average of 4,765 fans per match.

"We can't afford to lose more matches, especially at home," Peterson said. "You've got to win league matches to set yourself up to be in a good position for the postseason tournament. We are hoping for another big crowd. It really does help to have all those screaming fans behind us."

Friday's match can be seen on BYU-TV and KBYU-TV. To view the broadcast online, visit www.byutv.org/streaming/ or click here. Both matches will also be broadcast on BYU radio. To listen, visit http://www.byuradio.org/ or click here. To follow the matches online, visit http://www.byucougars.com/ or click here.