PROVO -- In an exhilarating five-set match on Senior Night at the BYU Smith Fieldhouse, the No. 2 ranked BYU men's volleyball team (21-7, 15-7) fell to the No. 3 Cal State Northridge Matadors (21-8, 15-7) 3-2 in its final regular season match.

Seniors Reed Chilton and Andrew Stewart led the team in assists and kills, respectively. Chilton finished with 42 assists and Stewart with 18 kills.

Fellow senior Joel Silva finished with double-digit digs for the eighth time this season with 14. The performance marks his 37th career double-digit dig game.

“Northridge played better tonight,” BYU head coach Shawn Patchell said. “We could not get the ball in the court and never got in a consistent pace, and really played tentative.”

The first set of the match went back and forth throughout, with neither team taking a commanding lead. BYU pulled ahead by five at 25-10, before the Matadors came charging back to tie it up at 28-28. The Cougars took the set 30-28 with two consecutive points, one a kill by Kent Tuttle and the other on an attack error by the Matadors.

Stewart was credited with five kills in the first set, and the team finished with a .407 attack percentage compared to a .182 percentage for Cal State Northridge.

Game two ended with the Cougars going down 29-31 despite finishing with five more kills (18-13) and three more assists (15-12) in the set. Futi Tavana started 7-7 until the 18-18 mark and Chilton finished with all 15 assists for the Cougars in the set.

The key for Cal State Northridge in game two was a lack of serving errors. BYU committed nine serving errors in the game while the Matadors had only four.

Set three started with neither team taking a major advantage, with the score being tied as late as 20-20. The Matadors took the lead for good at 21-20, and fought off the Cougars to win the set 30-27.

For the first time in the match the Cougars were unable to secure the offensive advantage. Cal State Northridge had 18 kills to the Cougars 11 and finished with a .308 attack percentage while BYU ended at .129.

Set four was evenly matched from beginning to end, with BYU not taking a permanent lead until 28-27. The set ended 30-28 BYU, and both teams finished with 15 assists in the set, while BYU held a slight advantage in kills at 17-15.

Yamil Perez finished with all 15 assists for the Cougars in the set and Stewart led the team with five kills.

The Cougars got off to a slow start in the fifth and final set, falling behind 1-5 and then 2-7. BYU mounted a comeback after a timeout, coming within one point at 8-9. The Matadors never relinquished the lead, and won the set 15-10 to end the Cougars 11-game win streak.

“The fifth set started bad,” Patchell said. “We had some missed serves and they made some plays. They are really a gritty team.”

BYU will be back in action next weekend in the MPSF Quarterfinals, which will be held Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
        #3 Cal State Northridge vs #2 BYU (Apr 17, 2010 at Provo, Utah)
   Cal State Northridge   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3  Tanner Nua..........  5| 15  14  48  .021|  0|  0   5|  0|  6| 1  2  0|  0
10 Kevin McKniff.......  5| 16   1  25  .600|  0|  1   8|  0|  0| 1  6  2|  0
11 Mike Gaudino........  5| 13   8  32  .156|  1|  0   3|  1|  7| 1  2  3|  0
12 Matt Stork..........  5|  2   0   3  .667| 62|  0   2|  0|  9| 0  3  1|  0
14 John Baker..........  5|  3   3  13  .000|  0|  0   5|  1|  8| 1  1  0|  0
17 Jacek Ratajczak.....  5| 17   4  30  .433|  1|  3   2|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0
1  Jim Wielebnicki.....  4|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  1   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
2  Jeff Baxter.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
7  Ali'i Keohohou......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  5| 67  30 152  .243| 65|  5  26|  2| 38| 4 15  6|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  8  33  .182   SET SCORES                1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  13  6  29  .241   Cal State Northridge (3) 28 31 30 28 15  21-8, 15-7 mpsf
   3  18  6  39  .308   BYU................. (2) 30 29 27 30 10  21-8, 15-7 mpsf
   4  15  7  37  .216
   5   7  3  14  .286
   BYU                    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3  CHILTON, Reed.......  4|  2   1   4  .250| 42|  1   4|  0|  5| 0  4  0|  0
5  LAVAJA, Russell.....  5|  8   2  14  .429|  1|  0   7|  1|  2| 0  4  1|  0
10 TAYLOR, Mat.........  5|  2   3   7 -.143|  0|  0   2|  1|  4| 0  2  0|  0
13 STOWELL, Robb.......  5| 17   6  36  .306|  0|  0   5|  0|  7| 0  1  2|  0
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  5| 18  10  42  .190|  1|  0   1|  1|  2| 1  6  0|  0
17 TAVANA, Futi........  5| 12   1  19  .579|  0|  1   3|  0|  4| 1  7  2|  0
1  TUTTLE, Kent........  1|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
4  SILVA, Joel.........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1| 14| 0  0  0|  0
7  ROBINSON, Jeff......  2|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
8  KAULIAKAMOA, Joe....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
11 SAGERS, Kevin.......  4|  6   6  19  .000|  0|  0   3|  1|  1| 1  0  0|  0
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  4|  0   0   0  .000| 17|  0   3|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  5| 66  29 143  .259| 61|  2  28|  5| 42| 3 24  5|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.0
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  5  27  .407   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  18  7  35  .314   Date: Apr 17, 2010   Attend: 2012   Time: 2h 50m
   3  11  7  31  .129   Referees: Les Calles, Maile Jewkes, Trent Mano
   4  17  6  38  .289
   5   4  4  12  .000

The No. 2 BYU men’s volleyball team (20-7, 14-6 MPSF) hosts No. 3 Cal State Northridge (20-7, 14-6 MPSF) for a two-match series on Friday and Saturday nights at the Smith Fieldhouse for the last two home games of the regular season. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. MT.

Holding a tiebreaker over Stanford, the Cougars can share the regular season title and earn a No. 1 seed with two home wins over CSUN this weekend, along with one loss by the Cardinal. BYU at least clinches home court in the quarterfinals with two wins, or a split coupled with one loss by either Pepperdine or Hawaii.

The Matadors joined to tie the Cougars this week for second in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation as well as having identical overall and conference records. BYU stays at No. 2 in the AVCA poll with one first-place vote. With the longest win streak in the Nation at 10, the Cougars have swept their opponents since March 12.

Cal State Northridge is tied for second with BYU in the MPSF and are tied for third with Pepperdine in the AVCA after defeating UCSB last Wednesday 3-2 and then-No. 9 Penn State Saturday 3-0. They are currently on a four-game win streak, including a win against No. 1 Stanford.

SERIES INFO

BYU holds a 25-19 lead in the series between these two teams dating back to April 11, 1990. The Cougars hold a 15-7 record at home in the Smith Fieldhouse while the Matadors edge BYU 9-11 on their home court. On neutral courts the teams are 1-1. BYU has won seven of the last ten matches—including five consecutive—but has lost to CSUN in the last four matches. Of those seven wins, only one has gone to five sets. The Cougars last faced the Matadors on Jan. 8, falling 3-1 at the UCSB Elephant Bar Tournament. Between 1997-2003 the Cougars recorded a series-leading 12-match win streak over the Matadors, including nine sweeps.

MATCH COVERAGE

Live stats are available at the BYU men’s volleyball schedule page at www.byucougars.com. Gametracker can be launched by clicking on the “Live Stats” link for the appropriate game on the schedule.

COMING OFF...

Extending its winning streak to 10 games, the BYU men’s volleyball team defeated Cal Baptist 3-0 Friday and Saturday nights. On Friday, the Cougar attack was led by sophomore Robb Stowell posting 14 kills at .619 hitting while senior Andrew Stewart tallied 11 kills. Senior setter Reed Chilton chalked up 38 assists and three digs while junior libero BJ Hiapo led the Cougars on defense with eight digs. The Cougars won in three quick sets (30-17, 33-31, 30-26). Sophomore middle blocker Russell Lavaja stopped the Lancers on the net with five total blocks. Saturday, BYU finished the weekend sweep of CBU in three games (33-31, 30-23, 30-27). Led by senior opposite hitter Kent Tuttle, the Cougars came out with another win. Tuttle tallied 17 kills and four digs on the night. Junior middle blocker Otavio Souza started his first match of the season, posting nine kills on .727 hitting. With three different setters in for the match, Chilton led in assists with 25 on the night. Libero Joel Silva had 11 digs on the night to lead his Cougars on defense.