LOS -- Taylor Evans and Brian Rowley's career performances helped the Cougars defeat USC 3-1 (30-32, 30-19, 30-27, 30-28) Friday night in the Lyon Center and extend their win streak to three. BYU is now 10-6 overall and 5-4 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while the Trojans are 5-15 and 1-11.

"We didn't play great but I think we're getting a little better for longer periods of time," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "I want to give USC credit. They were a little banged up but really came after us. I think they were really geared up for this. It's a big deal for them to play us."

Michael Burke continued to pound the ball for a high percentage, finishing with 13 kills and only one error on 22 attempts for a .545 hitting percentage. Evans' big night included getting 14 kills and hitting .500 (14-3-22) while setting a BYU rally-scoring record with seven aces. The total was also the second most in Cougar volleyball history. Rowley contributed 14 digs, a career-high and team season high.

Ivan Perez and Casey Patterson added 14 kills apiece to tie Evans for the team lead. As a team, BYU hit .385 (68-18-130) and had 41 digs and six team blocks.

Jose Grangeiro was the lead man for the Trojans as he put away a match-high 22 kills while adding 12 digs. USC hit at a .232 (52-23-125) clip and had 33 digs and seven team blocks.

The Cougars allowed game one to remain close and were unable to get an advantage over USC. Both teams hit for high percentages with BYU coming in at a .432 (20-4-37) clip and the Trojans .455 (18-3-33). USC fought hard and came up with enough key points to pull out the win.

BYU made sure the second game was different, getting out to a big lead early and cruising to the 30-19 win. The Cougars were able to capitalize on several Trojan errors and hit .417 (12-2-24).

Games three and four were much like the first, close throughout. The Cougars were able to make plays at key moments and won both games to seal the victory.

BYU and USC will be back in action for a second meeting Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Lyon Center.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
                   Brigham Young vs USC (Mar 04, 2005 at USC)
    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   1  22  .545|  0|  0   4|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0|  14.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  4| 14   6  29  .276|  0|  2   5|  1|  7| 0  3  0|  1|  17.5
 9  PATTERSON, Casey....  4| 14   5  29  .310|  7|  0   5|  0|  6| 0  1  0|  0|  14.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  5   0   8  .625| 49|  0   5|  0|  7| 0  1  2|  3|   5.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  4|  8   2  17  .353|  3|  2   3|  0|  2| 1  2  1|  1|  12.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  4| 14   3  22  .500|  2|  7   2|  2|  3| 0  0  2|  0|  21.0
 2  STEWART, Bryan......  3|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  HEYES, Matt.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  4|  0   1   1-1.000|  2|  0   0|  2| 14| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 68  18 130  .385| 63| 11  24|  5| 41| 1 10  5|  5|  85.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  4  37  .432   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  12  2  24  .417   Brigham Young....... (3) 30 30 30 30  10-6, 5-4 MPSF
   3  17  6  32  .344   USC................. (1) 32 19 27 28  5-15, 1-11 MPSF
   4  19  6  37  .351
    USC                    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  Jimmy Killian.......  4|  1   0   5  .200| 46|  1   4|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  2|   3.5
 4  Fernando Barron.....  4|  9   7  22  .091|  1|  0   4|  1|  2| 0  2  0|  0|  10.0
 8  Andrew Vernon.......  4|  5   2  12  .250|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0|   6.0
 12 Jake Lewis..........  4|  9   6  26  .115|  0|  1   2|  1|  4| 0  2  0|  0|  11.0
 14 Joao Grangeiro......  4| 22   5  44  .386|  0|  2   4|  4| 12| 0  1  0|  0|  24.5
 18 Chris McKniff.......  4|  6   0  12  .500|  1|  0   0|  1|  2| 0  3  1|  0|   7.5
 16 Evan Burden.........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  4|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 17 Matt Mosko..........  1|  0   2   2-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 19 Danny Newman........  3|  0   1   2 -.500|  0|  1   1|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   1.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 52  23 125  .232| 48|  5  16| 11| 33| 0 14  1|  2|  64.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  3  33  .455   Site: USC (Lyon Center)
   2   8  9  25 -.040   Date: Mar 04, 2005   Attend: 300   Time: 1:53
   3  12  6  36  .167   Referees: Greg Leung, Scott Hogue
   4  14  5  31  .290
                                         1   2   3   4 Total
                        Tie scores      21   1  12   3    37
                        Lead changes    11   1   5   2    19

PROVO -- The BYU men's volleyball team will have its sights set on continuing to move up in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings with two matches at the University of Southern California Friday and Saturday, Mar. 4 and 5.

The Cougars took two from UC Irvine in Provo Feb. 25 and 26 to get back to .500 in the Federation at 4-4 and improve to 9-6 overall. The wins also helped BYU move up in the USA Today/CSTV Coaches Poll to No. 6 from its previous No. 7 ranking.

"Winning is always nice," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "It's a good confidence boost to beat a talented team like Irvine. We need to take these two from USC to accomplish our team goals and to continue moving up in the MPSF standings so we can be among the top teams in the league at the end of the season."

The Cougars did manage to pick up some ground after defeating the Anteaters, improving their MPSF record from 2-4 to 4-4 and jumping from tenth place to sixth.

The USC Trojans have struggled thus far in 2005, standing at 4-14 overall and 1-10 in the MPSF. The team's only league win came against the UC San Diego Tritons, who are winless this season. Despite the Trojan's struggles, they have shown promise, taking Pacific, Long Beach State and Hawai'i to five games. They are coming off 3-0 losses to UC Santa Barbara (Feb. 23) and Cal State Northridge (Feb. 25).

"They're a scary team," Peterson said. "They have some tall players that can cause some problems. They're a talented team and we cannot afford to be up and down at all."

Although USC's roster includes the return of all six 2004 starters, the Trojans are still very young. While the roster includes four seniors, only two have seen significant playing time while one of those has split time with a freshman. J.T. Gilmour has played 33 of 65 games at setter while freshman Jimmy Killian has played in 38. Gilmour has seen more time recently, starting USC's two matches last week.

"They have all of their guys back from last season and one of their setters (Jimmy Killian) was a top recruit coming out of high school," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "They should be very good but in this league, even when you play well, it doesn't guarantee a victory."

Blake Tippett, the Trojan's other senior starter, is leading the team with a 3.78 kills per game average while contributing 1.44 digs. USC's most efficient player has been Andrew Vernon, a 6-8 freshman middle blocker. He is averaging 2.32 kills per game while hitting .406, best among starters. Three other players average over two kills per game with Juan Figueroa at 2.94, Matt Mosko averaging 2.81 and Jose Grangeiro 2.64. Grangeiro is also a threat serving the ball and defensively, averaging team-highs in aces at 0.41 and digs at 2.14.

As a team, the Trojans are hitting .272 compared to .333 for their opponents. USC averages 2.22 blocks and 8.45 digs per game.

The series between the Cougars and the Trojans goes to BYU, which owns a 16-7 advantage. The Cougars have won the last six meetings and 11 of the last 12. In Los Angeles, BYU is 6-3. In 2004, the Cougars swept USC in the first match and came back from a 2-0 deficit to win in the second.

BYU will look to build on its sweep of UC Irvine by adding two more MPSF wins. The Cougars went with a new 2005 lineup that was similar to that of 2004, with Victor Batista starting at middle blocker. Batista had started every match at outside hitter before making the switch. Against the Anteaters he hit .357 and totaled nine blocks.

"It (the lineup) seemed to work against Irvine," Peterson said. "We'll probably stay with it for now as long as we're having success."

Michael Burke was on fire over the weekend averaging 3.29 kills per game, hitting .636 and registering nine blocks. On Saturday, he killed the winning point in every game. He is now hitting a team-best .496 in all matches and .500 in MPSF play. Last season against USC, Burke had the best match of his career hitting the ball, collecting 12 kills on 13 attempts with no errors for a .923 percentage.

Against UC Irvine, the Cougars struggled to a .275 hitting percentage in Friday's win before improving to .436 on Saturday. In that match, BYU had 56 kills, including 20 and 23 in the first two games.

A live audio broadcast will be available to Yahoo! Sports College Broadcast subscribers. To listen to the match, visit http://sports.yahoo.com/top/collegebroadcast/teams/pah.

After this weekend's matches with the Trojans, the Cougars will be back on the road the next weekend against the University of Pacific for two matches.