LONG BEACH, Calif., (Apr. 24, 2008) -- The championship match of the 2008 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament will feature No. 3 BYU and No. 5 Pepperdine after the Cougars swept No. 3 Cal State Northridge and the Waves swept No. 2 Long Beach State Thursday at the Walter Pyramid.

BYU's record improved to 25-4 on the year, and CSUN fell to 23-7. Senior All-MPSF First Team selection Ivan Perez led all hitters with 16 kills and a .345 attack percentage. Fellow senior All-MPSF First Team honoree Russell Holmes led all blockers with seven total blocks including one block solo.

"I was proud of my guys," BYU head coach Shawn Patchell said. "We've been focusing on starting well. These guys executed our game plan, and our All-Americans played like All-American tonight."

Patchell's crew jumped out to a 5-1 lead capped by a service ace from Perez and never lost the lead on the way to a 30-22 victory in the first set. In fact, CSUN got no closer than within four points in the rest of the set. Holmes earned the final point of the set on his fourth kills of the set, and led all blockers with three. Perez led all attackers with six kills on nine swings, lifting the Cougars to a .393 attack percentage compared to the Matadors' .000 (six kills and six errors on 23 swings) performance.

The Cougars earned another 5-1 advantage to start the second set and again held the lead to a 30-28 win. CSUN pressured BYU and was within one point four times in the set, the last time at 26-25, but did not tie or take the lead. Holmes apparently enjoyed serving back in his home state as evidenced by his back-to-back aces for the 16th and 17th points of the set. He finished with three on the night. The Cougars were out-hit in the set .424 to .231, but racked up three service aces to the Matadors' 12 service errors.

Sophomore Andrew Stewart sealed the 30-26 victory in the set and completed the sweep on his fourth block of the night. CSUN tied the set at 15-15, but never led. The Cougars stepped up their offense and hit .455 to the Matadors' .222 percentage in the deciding set.

The championship match will be held Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Walter Pyramid. BYU will look to beat Pepperdine for the third time this season after downing the Waves twice in Provo earlier this season.

Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young Univ. Cougar VolleyBall
                  #3 Cal State Northridge vs #2 Brigham Young
                      (Apr 24, 2008 at Long Beach, Calif.)
   Cal State Northridge   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1  Kneubuhl, Isaac.....  3|  9   5  23  .174|  1|  1   2|  2|  4| 0  1  0|  0
5  Loe, Cody...........  3|  6   2  15  .267|  0|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  4  0|  0
9  Bluemling, Travis...  3|  0   0   0  .000| 35|  0   2|  0|  7| 0  2  0|  0
10 McKniff, Kevin......  3|  4   3   9  .111|  0|  2   5|  1|  0| 0  2  0|  0
11 Gaudino, Mike.......  3|  5   2  11  .273|  0|  1   4|  2|  7| 0  1  1|  0
14 Vance, Eric.........  3| 16   6  34  .294|  1|  0   5|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0
7  Keohohou, Ali'i.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  6| 0  0  0|  0
18 Baxter, Jeff........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  3| 40  18  92  .239| 37|  4  21|  6| 25| 0 12  1|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1   6  6  23  .000   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  18  4  33  .424   Cal State Northridge (0) 22 28 26  23-7
   3  16  8  36  .222   Brigham Young....... (3) 30 30 30  25-4
   Brigham Young          |     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|  1   0   9  .111|  2|  0   3|  0|  2| 1  2  0|  0
8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3| 16   6  29  .345|  0|  1   4|  1|  5| 0  2  1|  0
11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  9   1  10  .800|  0|  3   5|  0|  0| 1  6  0|  0
13 CHARETTE, Jonathan..  3| 11   3  24  .333|  1|  1   2|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  3|  1   0   1 1.000| 35|  1   2|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  0
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  3|  7   3  14  .286|  0|  0   1|  1|  8| 0  4  0|  0
6  SILVA, Joel.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  2|  7| 0  0  0|  0
16 JUSTEN, Leandro.....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  3| 45  13  87  .368| 39|  6  18|  4| 28| 2 16  1|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  5  28  .393   Site: Long Beach, Calif. (Walter Pyramid)
   2  11  5  26  .231   Date: Apr 24, 2008   Attend: 1980   Time: 1:29
   3  18  3  33  .455   Referees: Marvin Hall, Tony Chan
                        ID-663467
                        MPSF Semifinal #2

PROVO -- The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Playoffs will continue Thursday in Long Beach Calif., and No. 3 BYU will square off against No. 4 Cal State Northridge at 8 p.m. in a semifinal match.

The Cougars lead the series against the Matadors 24-15 and have won the last four meetings between the two teams. BYU beat CSUN twice in Provo earlier this season, once in four sets and then again in five the following night. When they met in Provo in the first round of the 2007 MPSF playoffs, BYU used its home-court advantage to sweep CSUN and advance to face future NCAA Champ UC Irvine. This will be the first neutral-site meeting between the two teams.

The Cougars are led by All-MPSF First Team honorees Russell Holmes and Ivan Perez. Both are returning All-Americans and All-America nominees again this season. Holmes is second in the nation in blocks per game (1.52) and fifth in the nation in attack percentage (.462). Perez is 14th in the country in kills per game (4.31). BYU as a team ranks fifth in the country in attack percentage at .309.

All-MPSF First Team selection Eric Vance leads the Matadors and is among the top ten in the nation in both kills, aces, and points. He ranks ninth in the nation with an average of 4.47 kills per game, fifth in the nation averaging .525 aces per game, and eighth in the nation with an average of 5.33 points per game. The Matadors rank second in the country in attack percentage at .326 on the season. They entered the tournament as the No. 3 seed with a 17-5 conference record.