PROVO -- The undefeated No. 2 Cougars completed the weekend against No. 8 UC Santa Barbara Saturday with a three-game sweep (30-24, 30-28, 30-24) to improve 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

"We played more consistent tonight, which landed us on top," said Coach Tom Peterson. "We can't contribute the win to only one player, all of the guys put forth good effort."

Ivan Perez led BYU in kills with 19, Rob Neilson had 43 assists, and Victor Batista had six block assists.

As a team, BYU hit .337 (50-15-104) and had 20 blocks and 25 digs. Neilson had a match-high 6 digs while Batista added 5.

Evan Patak dominated for the Gauchos with 18 kills and almost half of the kill attempts, while the team hit .214. Max Klineman had 41 of 46 assists and Aaron Richman had seven digs on the night.

Santa Barbara was once again disadvantaged by the crowd of 3,592 fans. Peterson commented on home court advantage, "We have had the home court advantage every game this season, next week we'll have to step it up."

BYU started the match with an easy 30-24 win in game one. The Cougars dominated the entire game and had their biggest lead at game point. Perez went 8-for-12 on the attack while Batista went 5-for-8. The Gauchos trickled off at the end when BYU put it away with a kill by Neilson.

Game two was a scary one for Cougar fans while they were down until game point when they achieved their first lead, then put it away after an error by the Gauchos (30-28). Santa Barbara held an average of three points ahead the entire game, but the Cougars came out on top in the end. In the fifth rally of the game, the crowd went wild as the ball went off the ceiling into deep court where Perez saved it with a free ball to land in the middle of Gauchos players, staring in amazement.

BYU led all of game three (30-24), achieving an eight-point lead late in the game at 27-19. Perez had six kills in game three, while Santa Barbara's leading hitter, Patak, had only four.

The Cougars will travel to Los Angeles, Calif. next Thursday and Saturday to take on the No. 5 UCLA Bruins.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
    #8 UCSB Gauchos vs #2 BYU Cougars (Jan 21, 2006 at SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU)
    UCSB Gauchos           |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Godinez, Jared......  2|  3   4  11 -.091|  1|  0   3|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 4  Berman, Bryan.......  3|  4   4  13  .000|  0|  2   1|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   6.0
 8  Fisher, Michael.....  3| 10   0  15  .667|  0|  0   2|  3|  3| 0  2  0|  0|  11.0
 11 Klineman, Max.......  3|  0   0   2  .000| 41|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  0  2|  0|   0.0
 21 Brunner, Theo.......  3|  6   2  13  .308|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   6.5
 40 Patak, Evan.........  3| 18  13  43  .116|  1|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0|  19.0
 5  Wilson, Drew........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  Jensen, Dane........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 12 Zakarian, Armen.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  6| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 33 Richman, Aaron......  3|  5   1   6  .667|  0|  0   1|  0|  7| 0  1  0|  0|   5.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 46  24 103  .214| 46|  2  11|  4| 32| 0  6  2|  0|  51.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 3.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  5  38  .316   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  17 10  32  .219   UCSB Gauchos........ (0) 24 28 24  2-5, 1-3  MPFS
   3  12  9  33  .091   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 30 30  6-0; 4-0  MPFS
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  3|  9   2  20  .350|  0|  1   2|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  0|  11.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3| 19   3  28  .571|  1|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  0|  20.5
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  7   2  14  .357|  2|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  4  1|  0|   9.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  3|  1   0   3  .333| 43|  0   0|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  1|   1.0
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  3|  8   3  22  .227|  2|  1   3|  0|  5| 0  6  1|  0|  12.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  5   5  16  .000|  1|  2   4|  1|  2| 0  3  1|  0|   8.5
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 COX, Scott..........  1|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   0.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 50  15 104  .337| 49|  4  12|  2| 25| 0 20  3|  1|  64.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  21  4  40  .425   Site: SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU (ELAINE MICHAELIS)
   2  12  6  26  .231   Date: Jan 21, 2006   Attend: 3592   Time: 1H 35M
   3  17  5  38  .316   Referees: LES CALLES, MAILE JEWKES

NO. 2 COUGARS TO FACE GAUCHOS

The No. 2 Cougars will put their perfect record on the line this weekend with two matches against No. 8 UC Santa Barbara in the Smith Fieldhouse Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. BYU (4-0 overall, 2-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) is tied for first in the MPSF while the Gauchos are 2-3 overall and 1-1 in league play.

"I'm happy with our record," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "But we need to keep playing better. We will need to be on top of our game this weekend. Our passing will be a big factor."

BYU swept Cal State Northridge last weekend to get off to a 2-0 start in league play. The Cougars are off to their best start since the 2001 team began that season 10-0. Russell Holmes averaged 2.5 kills and 2.5 blocks per game as he helped lead BYU to back-to-back 3-1 wins. Jonathan Charette had a big match on Friday, recording 14 kills, six blocks and five digs. As a team, the Cougars had 24.0 blocks, a school rally-scoring record. Ivan Perez got hot in the second match, tying his season high with 21 kills.

Holmes is hitting .500 for the season and is averaging 1.87 blocks per game. Perez leads the team in kills per game at 4.26 while Victor Batista is averaging 2.93 and hitting .473. Brian Rowley leads the team in digs at 2.27 per game.

Santa Barbara is led by Evan Patak, who paces the team with 5.56 kills per game and has terrorized opposing teams with his dangerous serve. He has recorded 17 aces in just 18 games. Aaron Richman is second in kills at 3.00 per game and Theo Brunner is hitting a team-high .359.

"Evan Patak is a very good player," Peterson said. "We need to slow him down and not let him control us with his serve. We need to contain him and not let anyone else have a big match."

The Gauchos hosted the UCSB Elephant Bar Tournament at the beginning of the season and went 1-2, with a win over UC Irvine and losses against UCLA and Cal State Northridge. Last weekend, Santa Barbara hosted Hawai`i and split with the Warriors.

BYU owns an 18-15 lead in the all-time series between the Cougars and Gauchos. BYU is 11-6 at home during the series, including a loss in the MPSF Tournament last season and the Cougars earning back-to-back sweeps in 2004.

No. 2 BYU COUGARS (4-0, 2-0 MPSF) vs. No. 8 UC SANTA BARBARA GAUCHOS (2-3, 1-1 MPSF)

Friday and Saturday, Jan. 20 and 21, 2006 - 7 p.m. MST

Smith Fieldhouse (5,000) - Provo, Utah

Coaches: BYU, Tom Peterson (76-21 in fourth year, 328-151 overall)

UC Santa Barbara, Ken Preston (475-336 in 27th year, same overall)

Series: BYU leads, 18-15, including last season's split in Santa Barbara, Calif. and the Gauchos win in Provo in the MPSF Tournament

TV: Friday: BYUTV and CougarTV, live

Saturday: CougarTV, live - Visit www.byucougars.com for information