LOS -- In their first road match of the season, the Cougars caught fire after losing game one to defeat UCLA 3-1 (24-30, 30-26, 30-14, 30-24) Thursday at Pauley Pavillion. BYU is now 7-0 overall and 5-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while UCLA is 4-4 overall and 0-2 in league play.

"We made all sorts of errors in the first game," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "We were nervous. We just settled down after that and played the way we can. There wasn't anything magical about it, we just played better."

Ivan Perez led three Cougars in double-digit kills with 21, his fourth match this season eclipsing the 20-kill plateau. Taylor Evans and Russell Holmes were the other BYU players in double digits with 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Holmes led the Cougars in blocks with seven as the team tallied 11.5.

Perez struggled in game one but then cruised to a .500 (21-4-34) hitting percentage. He was one of four BYU players to hit over .400 as Evans hit .474, Victor Batista hit .471 and Jonathan Charette hit .533. As a team, BYU hit .450 (65-16-109). Batista added a season-high four aces while Evans tied his season best with three. The Cougars had nine aces for the match, a season high.

Paul George led UCLA with 11 kills while hitting .562. Kick Sheftic also had 11 kills and Damien Scott added 10. The Bruins hit .288 (55-21-118) as a team. UCLA had 4.0 blocks.

UCLA controlled game one, out-hitting the Cougars .444 (16-4-27) to .259 (13-6-27). After BYU settled down, it was smooth sailing as the Cougars hit .452 (20-6-31) in game two, .636 (15-1-22) in game three and .483 (17-3-29) in the match-clinching fourth.

The Bruins struggled after their hot first game, hitting .312, .148 and .250 in games two, three and four.

"We got them out of system well with our serve," Peterson said. "I thought our serving and passing got better and that is always going to key everything."

BYU and UCLA will be back in action Saturday night at 7 p.m. in Pauley Pavillion. The match can be heard live by visiting www.uclabruins.com. The Cougars are currently on a seven-match win streak, their longest win streak since concluding 2004 with seven-consecutive win and starting 2005 with three straight for a total of 10-straight wins.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
                   BYU vs UCLA Bruins (Jan 26, 2006 at UCLA)
    BYU                    |     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..  4|  9   1  15  .533|  0|  1   1|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|  10.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  4| 21   4  34  .500|  2|  0   5|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  0|  22.5
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  4| 11   6  20  .250|  0|  0   4|  0|  2| 0  7  1|  0|  14.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  2   1   3  .333| 54|  0   3|  0|  8| 0  5  1|  0|   4.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  4|  9   1  17  .471|  1|  4   2|  1|  3| 0  4  0|  0|  15.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  4| 12   3  19  .474|  1|  3   3|  1|  9| 0  3  1|  0|  16.5
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  2|  5| 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|  1   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 65  16 109  .450| 60|  9  19|  4| 32| 0 23  3|  0|  85.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  6  27  .259   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  20  6  31  .452   BYU................. (3) 24 30 30 30  7-0 (5-0)
   3  15  1  22  .636   UCLA Bruins......... (1) 30 26 14 24  4-4 (0-2)
   4  17  3  29  .483
    UCLA Bruins            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Dennis Gonzalez.....  4|  2   1   9  .111| 38|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  1  2|  0|   2.5
 9  Steve Klosterman....  4|  7   2  16  .312|  1|  0   2|  2|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   7.0
 10 Damien Scott........  3| 10   6  23  .174|  0|  0   3|  2|  2| 0  1  0|  0|  10.5
 15 David Russell.......  4|  4   2  12  .167|  0|  2   4|  0|  0| 1  1  1|  0|   7.5
 21 Paul George.........  4| 11   2  16  .562|  3|  0   5|  2|  8| 1  0  0|  0|  12.0
 27 Nick Scheftic.......  4| 11   3  24  .333|  1|  1   3|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0|  12.5
 1  Tony Ker............  3|  2   0   3  .667|  1|  1   0|  0|  1| 0  0  1|  0|   3.0
 2  Sean O'Malley.......  1|  5   4   9  .111|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   5.0
 4  Blake Taylor........  1|  0   1   2 -.500|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 17 D.J. Stromath.......  1|  3   0   4  .750|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 32 Matt Wade...........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  6|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 33 Eric Chaghouri......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  3|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 55  21 118  .288| 50|  4  19|  9| 22| 2  4  4|  0|  63.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 4.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  4  27  .444   Site: UCLA (Pauley Pavilion)
   2  13  3  32  .312   Date: Jan 26, 2006   Attend: 745   Time: 2:00
   3  10  6  27  .148   Referees: Tony Chan, Marvin Hall
   4  16  8  32  .250

NO. 2 COUGARS HIT THE ROAD TO PLAY UCLA

PROVO -- The No. 2 Cougars, 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, will hit the road for the first time this season and play No. 6 UCLA, Thursday and Saturday, Jan. 26 and 28 in Pauley Pavillion. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m.

"This is the biggest weekend of the season so far," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "This will be our first time on the road and our first test away from the friendly confines of the Smith Fieldhouse. We need to win on the road. We cannot expect to win the league without winning on the road."

BYU picked up two MPSF wins by defeating UC Santa Barbara 3-1 and 3-0 last Friday and Saturday. In the first match, the Cougars got off to a hot start, getting 14 kills on their first 15 attempts to take a 25-12 lead. BYU won game one 30-17 and then lost game two and won the third. Trailing 25-20 in the fourth, the Cougars cut the lead to one but trailed 28-26, 29-28 and 30-29. Evans recorded a kill to tie the score at 30 and then a Gaucho hitting error gave BYU the lead. Victor Batista and Ivan Perez then blocked Evan Patak for the match-winning point.

The next night the Cougars swept Santa Barbara but only after another big comeback. Trailing 25-21 in game two, BYU outscored the Gauchos 9-3 to win the game and then go on to complete the sweep. Perez had 23 kill on Friday and 19 on Saturday to lead BYU. He was named the player of the week by the MPSF and the American Volleyball Coaches Association.

Perez continues to lead BYU in kills per game at 4.82 and is hitting .362. Batista is averaging 3.00 kills and 1.55 blocks while hitting .444. Russell Holmes is hitting a team-best .466 while also leading the team in blocks at 1.64 per game.

Paul George leads UCLA in kills at 3.65 per game while Jamie Diefenbach leads the Bruins in hitting percentage at .490. Diefenbach is also the team's top blocker, averaging 1.42 per game. UCLA is 4-3 overall and 0-1 in the MPSF and is currently on a two-match win streak. These matches will be the 37th and 38th in the history of the series, with the Bruins leading 24-12.

Both matches can be heard live on the internet. Visit www.uclabruins.com for more information. BYU will be back in Provo next weekend for two matches against Pepperdine, Feb. 3 and 4.