SANTA BARBARA -- Yamil Perez had another impressive outing, leading BYU (15-4, 11-3 MPSF) to a .495 team hitting percentage as the No. 3 Cougars swept No. 4 UC Santa Barbara (14-8, 10-7) for the second consecutive night, 30-28, 30-28 and 30-26.

Perez had 53 assists and set for a team that had four players swing over .500. The only Cougars' attacker to hit under .500 was outside hitter Yosleyder Cala, who posted a .304 hitting percentage on 12 kills. Freshman Robby Stowell led BYU once again, getting 19 kills while hitting .500.

"Yamil had his best match of the season," co-head coach Shawn Patchell said. "All of his sets were right on the money. He has steadily improved throughout the season."

Perez also added two digs and three block assists. Russell Holmes also came up big for the Cougars, picking up eight kills while hitting .583. Holmes added five blocks and a career-high four service aces.

Early in the first set, the two teams played evenly playing to a tie at 11. With the score tied at 11, the Gauchos went on a 3-0 run to jump to a 14-11 lead and force a BYU time out. UCSB extended its lead to four at 18-14 before the Cougars began to chip away at the lead. BYU scored three consecutive points capped by a Stowell ace to narrow the margin to 18-17. After BYU and UCSB traded side outs, the Cougars scored two points in a row and two occasions to tie the game at 25. BYU then out-scored the Gauchos 3-1 on a Holmes kill followed by a combo block to take the two-point advantage. The Cougars won the set on a Cala kill.

Much like the first set, the second was closely contested with neither team building a two-point lead until the score reached double-digits. With the score tied at 13, BYU went on a 5-1 run to build a four-point advantage. UCSB came right back, with a 6-1 burst of its own to re-gain a 20-19 advantage. With the scored tied at 22, the Cougars scored four consecutive points to take the lead. Rodnei Santos and Ivan Perez put up a block to give BYU a 26-22 lead. Once again, the Gauchos fought back, scoring four consecutive themselves to tie the score. Ivan Perez shut the door on the second set with back-to-back kills to break a 28-all tie.

BYU caught fire in the third set, recording 21 kills while swinging .714 as a team. The Cougars jumped to an early 6-1 lead and never looked back. Behind back-to-back service aces from Holmes, the Cougars built a nine-point advantage at 24-15. BYU held off the Gauchos, with Stowell knocking home the match-winner.

The Cougars will have a week off before they head back to Southern California to take on Cal-State Northridge.

"Our team is getting better with every match," Patchell said.

Volleyball Box Score
#3 BYU Cougars vs #4 UC Santa Barbara (Mar 10, 2007 at Santa Barbara, CA)
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  CALA, Yosleyder.....  3| 12   5  23  .304|  0|  1   3|  2|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 2  SANTOS, Rodnei......  3|  8   1  10  .700|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  2|  0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3| 11   1  15  .667|  0|  0   1|  1|  2| 0  3  0|  0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  8   1  12  .583|  0|  4   4|  0|  0| 0  5  0|  0
 13 STOWELL, Robby......  3| 19   5  28  .500|  0|  2   1|  0|  7| 0  3  1|  0
 14 PEREZ, Yamil........  3|  0   0   1  .000| 53|  1   3|  0|  2| 0  3  1|  0
 5  COX, Scott..........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 6  SILVA, Joel.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 7  SORENSEN, Trent.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 15 TAYLOR, Mat.........  1|  0   0   2  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  0| 0  0  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  2|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 58  13  91  .495| 55|  8  14|  9| 21| 0 16  4|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  5  31  .484   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  17  7  32  .312   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 30 30  15-4, 11-3 MPSF
   3  21  1  28  .714   UC Santa Barbara.... (0) 28 28 26  14-8, 10-7 MPSF
    UC Santa Barbara       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  Kowalski, Bart......  3|  0   0   0  .000| 37|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  4  1|  0
 4  Berman, Bryan.......  2|  6   5  13  .077|  1|  4   2|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0
 8  Fisher, Michael.....  3|  6   2  12  .333|  0|  0   1|  1|  2| 0  3  1|  0
 21 Brunner, Theo.......  3| 13   2  22  .500|  1|  1   2|  0|  0| 0  4  0|  0
 22 Kennedy, David......  3|  6   1   9  .556|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 40 Patak, Evan.........  3| 13   4  27  .333|  0|  3   3|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  0
 2  Brockman, Ben.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  3|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 7  Norton, Tyson.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 11 Klineman, Max.......  1|  0   0   1  .000|  6|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 12 Zakarian, Armen.....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 17 Moisenco, Sam.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 33 Richman, Aaron......  3|  2   0   4  .500|  0|  1   1|  1|  1| 0  0  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  3|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 46  14  88  .364| 45|  9  10|  8| 16| 0 13  3|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  6  30  .433   Site: Santa Barbara, CA (Robertson Gymnasium)
   2  15  5  34  .294   Date: Mar 10, 2007   Attend: 426   Time: 1:40
   3  12  3  24  .375   Referees: Ric Olmstead, John Martin

PROVO -- Nos. 3 and 4 will face off this weekend when third-ranked BYU heads to Santa Barbara to take on fourth-ranked UC Santa Barbara in a pair of crucial Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches Friday and Saturday evenings.

The Cougars (13-4, 9-3 MPSF), who are also third in the MPSF standings, will look to distance themselves from the fourth-placed Gauchos (14-6, 10-5) as the regular season winds down and the battle for MPSF tournament seedings begin to intensify.

"Santa Barbara is a very difficult place to play," co-head coach Ryan Millar said. "They have a rowdy crowd and a great team."

BYU will look to keep its current four-match winning streak going. UCSB won two in a row last week against non-conference foe IPFW. The Gauchos have dropped three straight MPSF matches. Both BYU and UCSB will be trying to gain ground on No. 1 Pepperdine and No. 2 UC Irvine. Both teams hold two-game leads on the Cougars.

"These matches are very important for seeding in the MPSF tournament," Millar said. "It will definitely be a battle."

BYU is coming off a week in which it swept the major weekly player awards. The Cougars' Yosleyder Cala brought home the Sports Imports/AVCA National Player of the Week award while Robby Stowell was recognized as the Molten/MPSF Player of the Week. Both hit over .500 and averaged around five kills per game against USC last week.

The Gauchos are led by star opposite Evan Patak. Patak is fourth in the nation in kills per game (5.77) and leads the nation in service aces with 85. His 85 aces more than double the nearest competitor in the category.

"UCSB has one of the most dominant players in the nation in Patak," Millar said. "We are focusing on getting better. We have had a nice couple of weeks of practice and have played well in our last four matches."

Both matches will start at 7 p.m. (PST) and will have no live stats, audio or video coverage.