LONG BEACH -- In a contest to determine the No. 1 team in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Standings, the No. 3 BYU men's volleyball team (17-3, 12-3) fell to No. 4 Long Beach State (18-3, 13-2) in three sets Thursday (23-30, 28-30, 27-30) and will look to even the score against the 49ers Friday.

Outside hitters Andrew Stewart and Ivan Perez had recorded double-digit kills in the match with 12 and 10, respectively. However, as a team the Cougars were out-hit in total kills at 36-54 and in attack percentage at .282 to .237.

Long Beach State's Paul Lotman and Dean Bittner had 18 kills apiece to lead all hitters. The home team also had eight service aces to BYU's none. Defensively, the 49ers tallied 6.5 total team blocks to the Cougars 5.5.

The two teams will meet again Friday at 7 p.m. PT at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif. Live audio can be heard at http://longbeachstate.cstv.com/sports/m-volley/sched/lbst-m-volley-sched.html.

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
    #3 Brigham Young vs #4 Long Beach State (Mar 20, 2008 at Long Beach, CA)
   Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  3|  0   1   2 -.500| 28|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0|   1.5
7  SORENSEN, Trent.....  3|  4   2   7  .286|  0|  0   4|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   4.5
8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3| 10   4  20  .300|  0|  0   2|  4|  6| 0  2  0|  0|  11.0
11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  2   1  11  .091|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  4  0|  0|   4.0
13 CHARETTE, Jonathan..  3|  8   9  22 -.045|  1|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   8.0
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  3| 12   0  18  .667|  1|  0   0|  3|  4| 0  1  0|  0|  12.5
1  TUTTLE, Kent........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
3  CHILTON, Reed.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
6  SILVA, Joel.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
16 JUSTEN, Leandro.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  3| 36  17  80  .237| 33|  0  10|  8| 24| 0 11  0|  0|  41.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  10  4  23  .261   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  13 10  32  .094   Brigham Young....... (0) 23 28 27  17-3, 12-3 MPSF
   3  13  3  25  .400   Long Beach State.... (3) 30 30 30  18-3, 13-2 MPSF
   Long Beach State       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2  Lotman, Paul........  3| 18   5  33  .394|  2|  2   5|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0|  20.5
5  Klipsch, Mike.......  3|  0   0   1  .000| 47|  0   3|  0|  4| 0  2  0|  0|   1.0
8  Anderson, Fletcher..  3|  3   3  11  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
18 Bittner, Dean.......  3| 18   6  31  .387|  0|  5   2|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  0|  23.5
20 Riley, Josh.........  3|  8   6  18  .111|  0|  0   4|  0|  3| 0  2  0|  0|   9.0
21 Alexander, Dan......  3|  7   3  16  .250|  0|  1   5|  0|  0| 0  6  1|  0|  11.0
1  Matsukado, Kory.....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
3  Watten, Dustin......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
4  Schlesinger, Adam...  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   0.5
15 Christensen, Gavin..  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  3| 54  23 110  .282| 49|  8  19|  0| 21| 0 13  1|  0|  68.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  9  34  .235   Site: Long Beach, CA (Walter Pyramid)
   2  13  7  34  .176   Date: Mar 20, 2008   Attend: 1136   Time: 1:27
   3  24  7  42  .405   Referees: Kim Pickering, Burt Fuller
                        Triple blocks: BYU 1, LBSU 1

PROVO -- Tied atop the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings, the No. 3 BYU men's volleyball team (17-2, 12-2) will head to southern California for two matches at No. 4 Long Beach State (17-3, 12-2) Thursday and Friday that could determine home-court advantage in postseason play.

Although LBS holds a slight advantage in the all-time series record over BYU (16-15), the Cougars are 12-8 over the 49ers since the beginning of the 1999 BYU National Championship season. LBS beat BYU in the last three meetings between the two teams in Long Beach, all of which took place in the 2006 season. In total, BYU is 3-5 in three-set matches, 7-7 in four-set matches, and 5-4 in five-set matches against LBS.

Headlining the Cougar roster, senior All-American middle blocker Russell Holmes leads the nation with 109 blocks and an average of 1.64 per game. He also currently ranks fourth in the nation with a .474 hitting percentage. Senior All-American outside hitter Ivan Perez is 11th in the country averaging 4.38 kills per game and 13th in the country with an average of 4.96 points per game.

Long Beach State is 17-3 overall and 12-2 in the MPSF after a three-game sweep at UC San Diego on Wednesday evening, a four-game win at home over IPFW and a five-game loss to Penn State on Saturday. The 49ers are ranked No. 4 this week in the CSTV/ AVCA Coaches Poll and No. 4 in Molten/Volleyball. In the most recent NCAA National Statistics, the 49ers are second in the country in hitting percentage at .332.

For more information, please see the attached PDF document.