LOS -- Senior Andrew Stewart tied a career high with 22 kills on Saturday as No. 4 BYU defeated No. 6 UCLA, 31-29, 27-30, 28-30, 31-29, 15-11, at Pauley Pavilion. The victory comes one night after suffering a sweep by the Bruins, splitting the weekend series. With the win the Cougars improve to 6-3 overall and 4-2 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play.

“To come back and play how we did tonight shows a lot of heart,” said BYU head coach Shawn Patchell. “It was nice to see some guys rebound from a tough loss last night. To win on the road at UCLA is huge and will really help us later in the season.”

Joining Stewart in double-digit kills were Kevin Sagers and Kent Tuttle with 14 and 11, respectively. Sophomore middle blocker Russell Lavaja contributed a match-high 11 blocks, marking a new career high.

“Andrew [Stewart] was able to rebound and play well tonight,” said Patchell. “It really was a team effort. Guys came in and did a nice job off the bench. Some guys who were struggling kept battling.”

In a set that saw 20 tied scores, the Cougars pulled out the close 31-29 win to begin the night as Stewart knocked down eight kills on a .727 attack percentage. With the score knotted at 25-25, Stewart and Robb Stowell both recorded kills, but it was back-to-back attacks by Kevin Sagers that clinched the win.

The second set started out as close as the first, until the Bruins gained momentum with the score tied 14-14. Two service aces, along with a pair of blocks put UCLA up 22-16. Sophomore Futi Tavana contributed a kill, block and ace in an attempt to decrease BYU’s defecit, but UCLA’s Garrett Muagututia put an end to those hopes with three kills to end the set, 30-27.

Playing from behind to begin the third set, Stewart once again produced small sparks for the Cougars as they tied the score 8-8. With the teams trading scores back-and-forth, UCLA gradually pulled ahead to win 30-28. The Bruins knocked down 23 kills in the third set alone, compared to BYU’s 16.

BYU was focused on tying the match at two sets apiece as it led by as many as three points to begin the fourth set. The Bruins’ strong offensive attack continued as they found themselves leading 22-18. After calling a timeout, BYU scored three consecutive points off a kill from Sagers and two UCLA errors.

Tuttle, Sagers and Lavaja all added kills as BYU tied the score 25-25, forcing the Bruins to call a timeout of their own. A costly UCLA service error brought up set point for BYU, which it took full advantage of on the following play as Otavio Souza and Reed Chilton combined for the set-winning block.

The Cougars took the lead in the fifth and deciding set at 6-5 and never trailed again. The Bruins, who recorded seven aces on the night, had three late errors from the service line as BYU went up 14-10. Souza’s final kill secured the overall win for the Cougars.

BYU will stay on the road next weekend as it travels to No. 7 UC Irvine for a two-match series on Feb. 4 and 5. Both matches begin at 7 p.m. PT.

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
                       BYU vs UCLA (Jan 30, 2010 at UCLA)
   BYU                    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3  CHILTON, Reed.......  5|  0   0   1  .000| 53|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  7  0|  0|   3.5
5  LAVAJA, Russell.....  5|  5   0   8  .625|  1|  0   5|  1|  2| 0 11  0|  0|  10.5
11 SAGERS, Kevin.......  5| 14   8  32  .188|  0|  1   4|  2|  9| 0  5  0|  0|  17.5
13 STOWELL, Robb.......  4|  5   3  18  .111|  0|  0   2|  0|  4| 0  3  1|  0|   6.5
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  5| 22   6  48  .333|  1|  0   1|  2|  5| 0  3  0|  0|  23.5
17 TAVANA, Futi........  2|  2   1   5  .200|  1|  1   1|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0|   4.5
1  TUTTLE, Kent........  5| 11   7  27  .148|  0|  1   2|  0|  8| 0  3  0|  0|  13.5
4  SILVA, Joel.........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  2|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
7  ROBINSON, Jeff......  1|  0   0   2  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
8  KAULIAKAMOA, Joe....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
9  SOUZA, Otavio.......  3|  7   0   9  .778|  0|  1   0|  0|  1| 0  5  0|  0|  10.5
10 TAYLOR, Mat.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  8|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
18 HIAPO, BJ...........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  5| 66  25 150  .273| 66|  4  17|  7| 42| 0 40  1|  0|  90.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                            TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 20.0
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct Sideout Pct
   1  18  5  31  .419  20-29  68%   SET SCORES                1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2   9  6  29  .103  19-30  63%   BYU................. (3) 31 27 28 31 15  6-3, 4-2
   3  16  3  33  .394  22-29  75%   UCLA................ (2) 29 30 30 29 11  4-5, 3-3
   4  17  8  42  .214  22-30  73%
   5   6  3  15  .200   8-12  66%
   UCLA                   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7  Garrett Muagututia..  5| 27   7  52  .385|  1|  0   1|  1| 13| 1  6  0|  0|  31.0
14 Jack Polales........  4|  7   7  20  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  4  1|  0|   9.0
17 Dylan Bowermaster...  4|  4   4   9  .000|  1|  0   2|  1|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   4.0
18 Thomas Amberg.......  4|  4   4  18  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  9  0|  0|   8.5
25 Kevin Ker...........  5|  3   2   6  .167| 67|  3   7|  0|  9| 0  1  0|  0|   6.5
28 Nick Vogel..........  5| 13   3  23  .435|  1|  3   6|  0|  1| 0  4  0|  0|  18.0
3  Tom Hastings........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  2| 13| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
4  Chen Levitan........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
8  Kyle Caldwell.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
16 Weston Dunlap.......  2|  4   1   7  .429|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0|   5.0
30 Jeremy Casebeer.....  4| 10   8  22  .091|  0|  1   2|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0|  11.0
36 Jonathan Bridgeman..  4|  7   1  14  .429|  0|  0   3|  0|  3| 0  2  0|  0|   8.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  5| 79  37 171  .246| 74|  7  25|  4| 52| 1 28  1|  0| 101.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                            TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.0
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct Sideout Pct
   1  16  6  31  .323  20-31  64%   Site: UCLA (Pauley Pavilion)
   2  15 10  34  .147  19-27  70%   Date: Jan 30, 2010   Attend: 1003   Time: 2:35
   3  23  8  43  .349  23-29  79%   Referees: Larry Schwartz, Tony Chan
   4  17  8  44  .205  21-30  69%
   5   8  5  19  .158   7-14  50%
                                         1   2   3   4   5 Total
                        Tie scores      20   4   8  13   6    51
                        Lead changes     7   1   2   4   2    16

Match Outlook

The No. 4 BYU men’s volleyball team (5-2, 3-1 MPSF) heads out on its first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation road trip to take on No. 6 UCLA (3-4, 2-2 MPSF) for a two-match series this weekend. This will mark the second and third meetings between the two teams this season, as they previously met in the second round of the UC Santa Barbara Invitational. BYU defeated UCLA, 3-2, in that match on Jan. 7.

The Bruins are coming off an upset sweep over then-No. 2 Cal State Northridge on Jan. 23. Playing in a hostile environment, UCLA handed the Matadors their first loss of the 2010 season.

Series Info

Although the Bruins lead the all-time series against the Cougars, BYU is 12-6 against UCLA since the beginning of the 2001 National Championship season. A weekend sweep for either team has been hard to come by in Los Angeles, with each series ending in a split dating back to 2002. Twenty-four of the 44 total meetings between BYU and UCLA have resulted in sweeps, while 12 have gone to four sets and only eight have reached the five-set mark. The two teams split two matches played in Provo last season.

Match Coverage

Live stats are available at the UCLA men’s volleyball schedule page at www.uclabruins.com. Gametracker can be launched by clicking on the link next to the appropriate game on the schedule.

Darren Preston will call the audio play-by-play on www.uclabruins.com.

Coming Off...

The Cougars are coming off a weekend split against No. 3 Stanford. 4,024 fans were in attendance on Friday as BYU handed the Cardinal its first loss of the season. Those in attendance didn’t go home disappointed as they saw some dominating performances from the Cougars. Senior outside hitter Andrew Stewart knocked down 21 kills, one short of his career high, and picked up 12 digs to give him the fifth double-double of his career. Also recording double-digit kills for BYU were Robb Stowell and Futi Tavana with 15 and 11, respectively. Despite suffering a 3-1 loss on Saturday, BYU was led by Stowell, who tied his career high of 22 kills. Three other Cougars recorded double-digit kills, including Stewart with 18, Tavana with 16 and Russell Lavaja with 15. Tavana and Lavaja both earned new career highs. Reed Chilton set a career-high 69 assists.