PROVO -- BYU extended its win streak to six with a 3-0 (30-15, 33-31, 32-30) win over Stanford Saturday in the Fieldhouse. The Cougars are now 14-2 overall and 12-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while the Cardinal are 4-16 overall and 2-12 in the MPSF.

"It was nice to win but we made too many mistakes that kept games two and three close," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "Stanford worked hard and was able to take the momentum at times. You have to give them a lot of credit."

Russell Holmes led BYU with 13 kills and three blocks while hitting a match and season-high .800. Yosleyder Cala also had 13 kills and hit .579 while Brian Rowley added a match-high nine digs. The Cougars hit .537 (54-10-82) for the match, eclipsing the .500 mark for the second-straight night, and had 26 digs and 6.0 blocks.

Stanford was led by Ben Reddy and Jesse Meredith, who each had 12 kills. Meredith hit a team-high .733. As a team, the Cardinal hit .253 (42-19-91) and had 14 digs and 6.0 blocks.

BYU was in control in game one from the very beginning, taking an 11-4 lead on six kills without an error. The Cougars continued to dominate, winning the game 30-15. Rodrigo Gomes put the game away, serving four-consecutive points to increase BYU's lead from 24-12 to 28-12. The Cougars hit .762 (17-1-21) and were led by Holmes' four kills on four swings. Victor Batista, Taylor Evans, Ivan Perez and Cala added three kills apiece. BYU limited Stanford to .034 (9-8-29) during the game.

Game two started where game one ended with the Cougars in control. BYU led 15-11 before the Cardinal reeled off five points to take its first lead of the match. Following a Cougar timeout, BYU quickly got back in control scoring four of the five next points to go ahead 19-16. Stanford came back again, tying the score at 21 and eventually had two chances to put the game away, leading 29-28 and 30-29. The Cougars came through on each point as Cala and Trent Sorensen each recorded kills. With the score tied at 31, Holmes recorded back-to-back kills to give the game to BYU at 33-31. The Cougars hit .424 (20-6-33) and were led by Holmes, who had five kills on five attempts, and Sorensen, who had four kills on five swings.

BYU trailed most of game three but stayed close and made a late run to take the game, 32-30. Trailing 22-23, the Cougar tied the game and then took a 24-23 lead on an ace by Rodrigo Gomes. BYU then took the lead at 25-24 on a kill by Cala. The Cougars had a match point at 29-28 but hit it out of bounds. With the score tied at 30, Holmes pounded two kills to claim the game and the match.

The Cougars will face one of their biggest tests of the season next weekend when they travel to play two matches against No. 2 UC Irvine, March 10 and 11.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
   Stanford Cardinal vs #1 BYU Cougars (Mar 04, 2006 at SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU)
    Stanford Cardinal      |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  Ahlfeldt, Chris.....  3|  5   2  12  .250|  0|  0   1|  2|  4| 0  4  0|  0|   7.0
 5  Manov, Nick.........  1|  1   0   4  .250|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 7  Williams, Brandon...  1|  0   0   2  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  1|  0|   0.0
 8  Clayton, William....  1|  2   1   5  .200|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 13 Jacobs, Jeremy......  1|  1   0   2  .500|  6|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  0  1|  0|   1.0
 15 Reddy, Ben..........  3| 12  11  31  .032|  0|  1   4|  0|  1| 1  2  0|  0|  15.0
 1  Meredith, Jesse.....  2| 12   1  15  .733|  0|  1   4|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|  13.5
 3  Groppi, Miki........  2|  1   0   1 1.000| 31|  2   6|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  0|   4.0
 6  Ekins, John.........  3|  6   4  14  .143|  1|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   6.0
 11 Lindberg, Brian.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 Ceran, Matt.........  2|  2   0   5  .400|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  1  1|  0|   2.5
 16 Keller, Jarod.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 42  19  91  .253| 39|  4  19|  2| 14| 1 10  4|  0|  52.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1   9  8  29  .034   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15  6  33  .273   Stanford Cardinal... (0) 15 31 30  4-16; 2-12; MPSF
   3  18  5  29  .448   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 33 32  14-2;  13-2; MPSF
    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
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  CALA, Yosleyder.....  3| 13   2  19  .579|  0|  0   4|  1|  3| 0  2  0|  0|  14.0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  2|  6   4  11  .182|  1|  0   3|  0|  4| 0  0  1|  0|   6.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3| 13   1  15  .800|  1|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0|  14.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  1|  1   0   1 1.000| 12|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  3|  3   0   4  .750|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  1|  0|   3.5
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  5   2  12  .250|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  0  1|  0|   5.0
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  1|  4   0   5  .800|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0|   5.0
 5  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  3|  3   0   5  .600| 28|  1   1|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  2|   4.5
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  2|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  3|  1   0   2  .500|  1|  1   4|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   2.5
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  3|  5   1   8  .500|  0|  0   0|  1|  1| 0  2  0|  0|   6.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 54  10  82  .537| 48|  2  17|  4| 26| 0 12  3|  2|  62.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  1  21  .762   Site: SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU (ELAINE MICHAELIS)
   2  20  6  33  .424   Date: Mar 04, 2006   Attend: 1757   Time: 1:42
   3  17  3  28  .500   Referees: MAILE JEWKES, DAPHNE NELSON, MAETANI, JA, SH

NO. 1 COUGARS BACK IN ACTION

The top-ranked Cougars will look to extend their four-match win streak when they take on Stanford in the Smith Fieldhouse, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. BYU is 12-2 overall and first place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation at 10-2 while Stanford is 4-14 overall and 2-10 in the MPSF.

"Stanford is a scrappy, hardworking team," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "They may not have a very good record but any team in this league can bite you on any given night. We don't want to be outworked by them. We will have to play well to win."

BYU has not played since earning back-to-back sweeps over UC San Diego, Feb. 16 and 18. The Cougars have maintained their No. 1 status in the CSTV/AVCA Division I-II Men's Coaches Top 15 Poll and the Molten/Volleyball polls. BYU was ranked No. 1 by both polls for the first time this season on Feb. 13 following two wins over USC.

The matches between the Cougars and the Cardinal will be the 27th and 28th meetings in the series. BYU leads 18-8 and holds an 8-2 advantage at home. Last season, the Cougars earned two 3-1 wins over Stanford. BYU has won five in a row in the Fieldhouse versus the Cardinal.

Stanford relies heavily on Ben Reddy for much of its offensive production. The senior opposite averages 4.89 kills per game while contributing 1.50 digs per game, second on the team. William Clayton is second on the team in kills at 2.46 per game while Chris Ahlfeldt is third at 2.41. Ahlfeldt leads the team in hitting percentage at .264 and Clayton is second at .263.

BYU was unstoppable in its first meeting with UC San Diego, hitting .573 (50-5-75), including .760 in game one. Both percentages were season highs. Taylor Evans had 13 kills on 17 error-less swings to lead the way. In the second match, the Cougars struggled, hitting .238 but still managing to earn a sweep. Russell Holmes led BYU with nine kills and seven blocks.

Holmes currently leads BYU in blocking at 1.53 per game, and is second in hitting percentage at .439. Ivan Perez leads the team in kills per game at 4.26 while Brian Rowley is first in digs at 2.06 per game.

A livestats feed will be available for both matches at www.byucougars.com/volleyball_m/. Both matches against Stanford can be seen live on CougarTV. Saturday's match will also be televised live on BYUTV. Visit www.byucougars.com for more information.

MATCH NOTES

NO. 1 BYU COUGARS (12-2, 10-2 MPSF) vs. STANFORD CARDINAL (4-14, 2-10 MPSF)

Friday and Saturday, March 3 and 4, 2006 - 7 p.m. MST

Smith Fieldhouse (5,000) - Provo, Utah

Coaches: BYU, Tom Peterson (at BYU: 84-23 in fourth year, career: 336-153)

Stanford, Don Shaw (at Stanford: 94-93 in seventh year, career: 533-163)

Series: BYU leads, 18-8, including last season's sweep by BYU in Stanford, Calif.

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

Saturday: BYUTV and CougarTV, live

Radio: Friday: BYU Radio, live

Web: Live stats broadcast is available both nights at www.byucougars.com/volleyball_m/

LAST MATCHES - BYU vs. UC SAN DIEGO

The Cougars improved to 12-2 overall and 10-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with two sweeps over UC San Diego Feb. 16 and 18. In the first match, BYU hit a season-best .573 (50-7-75) and limited the Tritons to .012 (25-24-85) hitting. Taylor Evans led BYU with 13 kills and no errors and hit a career-high .765. Russell Holmes had a solid match, recording eight kills and five blocks while hitting a season-high .778. Yosleyder Cala was also hot, getting eight kills on 12 error-less swings. The Cougars pounced on UC San Diego early, hitting .760 (19-0-25) in game one and winning 30-16. BYU continued to play well offensively in games two and three, hitting .481 and .478. The Cougars had a harder time with UC San Diego in the second match. BYU struggled offensively, hitting just .238 (37-17-84). Holmes led the team in kills with nine and blocks with seven. Both were match highs.

THE POLLS

BYU maintained its No. 1 ranking in the CSTV/AVCA Division I-II Men's Coaches Top 15 Poll and the Molten/Volleyball Poll for the third-consecutive weeks. The Cougars reached the top spot after earning back-to-back home wins over USC, Feb. 10 and 11. BYU received all 16 first-place votes in the CSTV/AVCA poll for the second-consecutive week.

CALA DOMINATES TROJANS

Yosleyder Cala dominated USC Saturday, Feb. 11 when he recorded 26 kills and hit .622. It took the 6-8 freshman just 37 swings to reach the BYU season high as he recorded just three hitting errors. Cala used power and various tip shots to fool the USC blockers. He also added three aces, five digs and two blocks. Cala finished the match with 30.0 points.

MR. CONSISTENT

Russell Holmes was BYU's most consistent player when the Cougars earned back-to-back sweeps over the Tritons, Feb. 16 and 18. In the first match, he hit .778 while picking up eight kills and five blocks. In the second match, when BYU was struggling offensively, he had nine kills, seven blocks and hit .438. For the week, Holmes averaged 2.83 kills and 2.00 blocks per game and hit .560.

CAN YOU DIG IT?

Brian Rowley had the best defensive weekend of his career when BYU defeated USC in back-to-back matches on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 10 and 11. On Friday, he tied his career high with 14 digs in BYU's 3-1 win. On Saturday, he tied the BYU rally scoring record with 16 digs in the Cougars' come-from-behind 3-2 win. BYU lost games one and two on Saturday but dominated USC in games three, four and five to capture the win and improve to 9-1 at home. Rowley recorded 14 digs twice last season and his previous high this season was 11, which he accomplished against Cal Baptist and Cal State Northridge.

NATION'S BEST FANS

BYU fans continued to show their support for the men's volleyball team as several thousands showed up to cheer on the Cougars when they played USC. On Friday, Feb. 10, 3,263 attended the match while 2,718 came out on Saturday night, despite the fact that there was a men's basketball game that night starting an hour before the volleyball match. BYU sold out both of its matches against Pepperdine and over 4,300 fans attended each night against Cal State Northridge and over 3,500 attended each night against UC Santa Barbara. The Cougars are now averaging 3,823 fans per match, the best in the NCAA.