PROVO -- The No. 2 ranked BYU Men's Volleyball team began the 2007 campaign the same way they did the 2006 season by beating Cal Baptist in three games 30-26, 30-18, 30-25 in front of 1,631 fans at the Smith Fieldhouse Friday night. The win is the Cougars first of the season while the Lancers fall to 0-2.

"Tonight we didn't have a lot of experience but we made some adjustments," BYU co-interim coach Shawn Patchell said. "The guys came through for us."

Junior Ivan Perez had a team-best 13 kills on .550 hitting percentage while All-American Russell Holmes had seven kills and on a team-high .636 hitting percentage. Freshman Robby Stowell had a stellar performance in his first match as a Cougar with 11 kills, five digs and three blocks.

"Robby had a huge night," said Patchell. "He was the go to guy tonight. Robby is a talented and athletic kid and he didn't make a lot of freshman mistakes."

In the first game the Cougars struggled to find any sort of rhythm early on. BYU trailed the entire game until the Cougars got back-to-back blocks by Stowell and Trent Sorensen to take a two-point lead at 28-26. The Cougars eventually put the Lancers away taking the first game 30-26 on another Sorensen block. Sorensen came up clutch for the Cougars ending the night with five blocks.

BYU started up the second game similar to the way they ended the first getting back-to-back-to-back blocks this time by Holmes and Perez. During that span the Cougars went on an 8-0 run to set the pace early taking an 11-4 advantage. The lead proved to be too much for Cal Baptist as BYU took the second game 30-18.

The entire third game of the match was controlled by the Cougars with the Lancers battling back each time BYU tried to build on its lead. When the Cougars thought they were going to put the game away having a five-point advantage over Cal Baptist, the Lancers battled back to come within three at 26-23. BYU was quick to respond to the late Lancer surge by defeating Cal Baptist 30-25 in the third game to take the sweep.

"Ryan McGuyre (Cal Baptist) is a good coach," said Patchell. "They'll make some adjustments for tomorrow and one of those will probably be Robby. They'll put a good game plan together."

BYU will face Cal Baptist Saturday night for the final match of the weekend. The match will begin at 7:00 p.m. (MST) in the Smith Fieldhouse.

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
      Cal-Baptist vs #2 Brigham Young Univ. (Jan 05, 2007 at Provo, Utah)
    Cal-Baptist            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  GUNTHOR, Urs........  3|  8   2  13  .462|  0|  2   4|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0
 4  SPENCE, Corey.......  3|  4   1  11  .273|  2|  0   1|  0|  1| 1  0  0|  0
 5  AWUDU, Shamsu.......  3|  6  10  31 -.129|  0|  0   2|  1|  3| 0  5  0|  0
 6  SUN, Yukai..........  2|  2   5  13 -.231|  0|  0   3|  1|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 9  BUEHRING, Dan.......  3|  2   2   5  .000| 26|  0   2|  0|  8| 0  0  2|  1
 23 VETTER, Romain......  3|  6   2  12  .333|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 1  2  0|  0
 17 CAYLAR, Clement.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  1
 99 MENDOZA, David......  2|  3   5  14 -.143|  0|  0   3|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 31  27  99  .040| 30|  2  15|  2| 18| 2 11  2|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  6  31  .161   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  10 11  38 -.026   Cal-Baptist......... (0) 26 18 25  0-2
   3  10 10  30  .000   Brigham Young Univ.. (3) 30 30 30  1-0
    Brigham Young Univ.    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  SORENSEN, Trent.....  3|  5   2  11  .273|  0|  0   3|  0|  0| 1  4  0|  0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3| 13   2  20  .550|  1|  0   4|  1|  4| 0  3  0|  0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  7   0  11  .636|  1|  0   2|  0|  1| 1  6  0|  0
 13 STOWELL, Robby......  3| 11   3  20  .400|  0|  1   2|  0|  5| 0  3  0|  1
 14 PEREZ, Yamil........  3|  0   3   3-1.000| 40|  1   2|  0| 10| 0  3  1|  3
 17 STEWART, Andrew.....  3|  8   7  20  .050|  0|  0   2|  0| 10| 1  1  0|  0
 5  COX, Scott..........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 12 POMPEI, Andy........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 44  17  85  .318| 44|  2  15|  2| 34| 3 20  1|  4
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  3  28  .429   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  15  6  29  .310   Date: Jan 05, 2007   Attend: 1631   Time: 1H 37M
   3  14  8  28  .214   Referees: Tom Given, Daphne Nelson, Ryan Mortensen

PROVO -- BYU will open its regular season with two home matches against Cal-Baptist this weekend. It will mark the second consecutive year the Cougars will open their season against the Lancers at home. Last year, BYU won both matches in impressive fashion (3- 0 and 3-1) on its way to a 7-0 start.

SERIES INFORMATION

The Cougars and Lancers will be playing for the fifth and sixth time with BYU holding a 4-1 advantage in the previous five matchups. The last time Cal-Baptist beat BYU was Jan. 14, 2005 when the Lancers edged the Cougars in five games.

Cal-Baptist is traditionally one of the best NAIA schools. The Lancers are the three-time defending NAIA National Champion. CBU dropped its season opener against No. 1 UC Irvine on Wednesday.

MATCH COVERAGE

Every home match will have a free live stats feed option. The live stats feed can be accessed by visiting the men's volleyball schedule page at www.byucougars.com. The direct link is http://www.byucougars.com/Schedule.jsp?SP=201&YR=2006. The live stats can be launched by clicking on the "Live Stats" link for the appropriate game.

Also available for the second season in a row is a live video feed through CSTV All-Access. Users must subscribe to this service. More information, such as cost and direct links to the CSTV All-Access page can be found by visiting the the schedule page and cliking on the "Live Video" link.

Jarom Jordan will provide the play-by-play coverage for this week's matches with Jordan Feinauer offering commentary.

"ALL-RETURNING" TEAM

Last season BYU had one All American and five All-MPSF performers. Three of the five return this season including second team AVCA All American Russell Holmes. Holmes was also second team All-MPSF. Ivan Perez earned an MPSF honorable mention citation last season and was the first BYU player to be named to an All America team as a freshman two seasons ago. Yosleyder Cala was named to the All-MPSF third team last year.

COACHES AND PLAYERS

BYU's entire coaching staff is coaching at its alma mater. Co-interim head coaches Ryan Millar and Shawn Patchell both starred for the Cougars in their playing days while assistant coach Rob Neilson played for earned All-MPSF honors for BYU just last season.

COUGARS IN PRESEASON RANKINGS

For the second consecutive season, BYU has made an appearance in the preseason top-5. Last season the Cougars were ranked preseason No. 1. This year, BYU starts the season ranked second behind reigning Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular season champion UC Irvine.

EVERY THREE YEARS...

Since BYU's first national championship in 1999, the Cougars have won the NCAA tournament a total of three times (1999, 2001 and 2004). Since the '99 season, BYU has won the NCAA Championship at least once every three years.

UP NEXT

Next week the Cougars will invite defending National Champion and third-ranked UCLA to the Smith Fieldhouse. BYU expects the Fieldhouse to be filled to capacity as it will be the students' first week back from the Christmas Holiday. Both matches will start at 7 p.m. and both will be televised by BYU-TV.