STANFORD -- The sixth-ranked BYU men’s volleyball team recorded a five-set win (26-30, 33-31, 30-24, 26-30, 15-11) over No. 5 Stanford Friday night, breaking the Cardinal’s previous five-match win streak. The win at Maples Pavilion improved the Cougars’ season record to 15-10 and 12-7 against MPSF opponents.

BYU also spoiled the Cardinal’s eight-match win streak against MPSF opponents as well as its 10-match undefeated record at Maples Pavilion, dating back to 2007.

Team captain Andrew Stewart led the Cougars with 16 kills and 13 digs, marking his first double-double of the 2009 season and second of his career. Futi Tavana and Mat Taylor each contributed 13 kills apiece, with Russell Lavaja recording 10 blocks, both match- and career-highs. Tavana also recorded eight blocks, including a career-high three block solos.

The opening set started with three consecutive service aces by Kent Tuttle--a new career-high for the junior opposite--to give BYU an 8-6 lead. The Cougars led by as many as four points before Stanford tied things up 15-15. The Cardinal’s .519 hitting percentage and BYU’s 10 attack errors were enough to give Stanford the set win at 30-26.

Stanford jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the second set before a kill by Stewart put BYU on the board. A kill from Alex Da Pron knotted the score 13-all. An into-the-net violation called on Stanford gave the Cougars their first lead of the set, but the advantage was short-lived as the Cardinal scored four-straight points. Trailing 25-19, four consecutive BYU blocks brought the Cougars to within one point, forcing a Cardinal timeout. Lavaja and Yamil Perez contributed kills to put the Cougars up 28-26, but Stanford clawed back to force set-point after scoring three-straight points. The two teams combined for four set-point scenarios before a block by Taylor and Tavana claimed the 33-31 win for BYU.

Ten tied scores was the story to start the third set before the Cougars went up 17-15. Consecutive kills from Stewart extended the lead to four. The Cardinal narrowed BYU’s lead to two points after a service ace, but could not completely close the gap. Perez and Stewart both knocked down kills, but it was five Stanford errors, including a service error on set-point, that secured the BYU win and gave the Cougars a 2-1 advantage in the match.

BYU’s strong blocking continued in the fourth set as the team scored four unanswered points to start. The momentum stayed in the Cougars’ favor with back-to-back kills from Tavana and a service ace from Stewart. With BYU leading 19-14, the two teams traded points back-and-forth as the Cardinal started seeing offensive success with four kills. After trailing by as many as five, Stanford’s first lead of the game came at 25-24 after a kill by Evan Romero. The Cardinal went on to win 30-26 to tie the match at two games-all.

After trailing 3-0 in the final set, the Cougars came back to tie it up 5-5 before two kills by Tavana gave BYU an 8-6 advantage. Taylor contributed his 13th kill of the night to put his team within two points of a win. A Stanford attack into the net set up match-point in favor of the Cougars. Another Cardinal attack error proved fatal as BYU claimed the 15-11 victory.

The Cardinal and Cougars meet again Saturday night at 7 p.m. PT.

Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young Univ. Cougar VolleyBall
        #6 BYU Cougars vs #5 Stanford (Apr 10, 2009 at Stanford, Calif.)
   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  TUTTLE, Kent........  3|  6   5  19  .053|  0|  3   2|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0
3  CHILTON, Reed.......  4|  1   1   2  .000| 23|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0
9  SOUZA, Otavio.......  1|  3   0   4  .750|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0
11 SAGERS, Kevin.......  2|  3   4   9 -.111|  0|  0   2|  1|  2| 0  0  0|  0
17 TAVANA, Futi........  5| 13   2  23  .478|  3|  1   3|  0|  2| 3  5  1|  0
23 DA PRON, Alex.......  5|  7   9  29 -.069|  2|  0   0|  2|  9| 0  7  0|  0
4  SILVA, Joel.........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  0
5  LAVAJA, Russell.....  5|  7   2  14  .357|  1|  0   3|  0|  4| 0 10  0|  0
8  KAULIAKAMOA, Joe....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
10 TAYLOR, Mat.........  4| 13   9  33  .121|  0|  0   0|  0|  6| 0  6  0|  1
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  4|  2   0   2 1.000| 37|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  2  0|  1
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  4| 16   6  34  .294|  0|  1   1|  0| 13| 0  4  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  5| 71  38 169  .195| 66|  5  14|  4| 60| 3 35  2|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 20.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17 10  33  .212   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15 11  45  .089   BYU Cougars......... (3) 26 33 30 26 15  16-10, 12-7 MPSF
   3  17  3  31  .452   Stanford............ (2) 30 31 24 30 11  19-9, 12-7 MPSF
   4  13 10  39  .077
   5   9  4  21  .238
   Stanford               |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5  Romero, Evan........  5| 15  10  49  .102|  2|  0   4|  0|  3| 0  5  0|  0
9  Lawson, Brad........  5| 14   9  39  .128|  4|  3   5|  1|  9| 0  1  0|  0
12 Shoji, Kawika.......  5|  7   3  11  .364| 55|  1   1|  0|  9| 0  2  0|  0
14 Werner, Garrett.....  5|  4   2  11  .182|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 1  7  1|  0
21 McLaughlin, Spencer.  5| 20   7  50  .260|  3|  0   4|  2|  3| 0  5  1|  0
25 Ellis, Gus..........  3|  3   0   6  .500|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  3  2|  0
1  Shoji, Erik.........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  2| 24| 0  0  0|  0
3  Groppi, Miki........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
6  Inafuku, Jordan.....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
7  Williams, Brandon...  4|  5   2   7  .429|  1|  0   3|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  5| 68  33 173  .202| 66|  4  19|  5| 53| 1 25  5|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  2  27  .519   Site: Stanford, Calif. (Maples Pavilion)
   2  12 13  45 -.022   Date: Apr 10, 2009   Attend: 1100   Time: 2:36
   3  15  6  37  .243   Referees: Brian Brink, John Kinyon
   4  19  7  41  .293   ID-739014
   5   6  5  23  .043

After splitting a pair of home matches against No. 1 UCI, the No. 6 BYU men’s volleyball team (15-10, 11-7 MPSF) goes to No. 5 Stanford (19-8, 12-6 MPSF) for two matches on Friday and Saturday nights. The visit marks the first of two final road trips of the Cougars’ regular season.

The Cougars finished 1-1 against the top-ranked Anteaters last weekend, defeating them 3-1 on Thursday before UCI returned the favor on Friday. Thursday’s win clinched a spot for BYU in the MPSF playoffs, but the Cougars have more work to do before they can host the opening round in Provo.

Stanford won its eighth consecutive MPSF match after a 3-1 road win over No. 10 UC San Diego last weekend. The Cardinal has four home matches remaining in the regular season.

Series Information

The Cougars lead the series against the Cardinal 21-11 and 11-8 in Stanford. BYU has won eight of the past 10 matches and swept Stanford in six of those. Two of those matches went to four games, but the Cardinal has not forced a fifth game since the 2003 season when BYU beat Stanford in back-to-back five-set matches.

Match Coverage

The matches can be watched live online by visiting Stanford’s men’s volleyball schedule page at www.gostanford.com. The video can be launched by clicking on the “Watch” link for the appropriate game on the schedule page.

Coming Off...3-1 Loss to No. 1 UCI

Playing its final home match of the season, a season-high 3,878 fans were in attendance as the No. 6 BYU men’s volleyball team dropped a tough 3-1 match (30-28, 26-30, 30-27, 30-27) to No. 1 UC Irvine Friday night in the Smith Fieldhouse. With the loss the Cougars and Anteaters split the weekend series and BYU falls to 15-10, 11-7 MPSF on the season. The Cougars finished their 2009 home season with a 9-3 record, having lost only five matches in the past three years.

The crowd of 3,878 not only marked the largest to visit the Fieldhouse this season, but the largest since Feb. 3, 2007 when 5,603 came to watch then-top ranked BYU fall to then-No. 2 UCI in a battle similar to Friday night’s.

Sophomore transfer Alex Da Pron recorded a team-high 16 kills against the Anteaters, his former teammates. Junior opposite Kent Tuttle contributed 12 kills just one night after a head-on collision requiring staples.

UCI, who currently leads the country in blocking, out-blocked the Cougars 18.5 to 18. Redshirt freshman Futi Tanava led BYU with nine blocks on the night, while freshman Russell Lavaja added eight of his own.

Up Next

The Cougars remain on the road for their final matches of the regular season, traveling to Pepperdine for two matches on April 16 & 17. BYU will then prepare for the first round of the MPSF tournament on April 22.

Last Year Against Stanford

February 22, 2008

The No. 1 BYU men’s volleyball team (12-0, 7-0) beat No. 9 Stanford (9-6, 5-6) in the Smith Fieldhouse for the 12th time in a row (30-22, 28-30, 30-18, 27-30, 15-12), led by senior All-American middle blocker Russell Holmes with 19 kills and senior setter Brian Congelliere setting the team to a .333 attack percentage.

Holmes hit an astounding .654 to record his highest kill total of the season. Also in double figures were sophomore outside hitter Andrew Stewart (15 kills), senior outside hitter Ivan Perez (13 kills), and senior middle blocker Trent Sorensen (12 kills). The win also marks the fourth time this season BYU has won in five sets.

February 23, 2008

The No. 9 Stanford Cardinal (10-6, 6-6) walked into the Smith Fieldhouse to hand the No. 1 BYU men’s volleyball team (12-1, 7-1) only their second home loss in the last two years and the Cougars’ first loss of the season as the Cardinal closed out the match in straight games 3-0.

Junior outside hitter Ivan Perez led the Cougars against the visiting Cardinal on the night as he recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 24 kills and 16 digs. BYU also had a strong performance by sophomore libero Joel Silva who had 14 digs on the evening.