PROVO, Utah – Senior Futi Tavana set the BYU record for total blocks in the rally scoring era to lead the No. 5 BYU men’s volleyball team to its second-straight home match sweep, a victory over No. 11 Pacific (25-23, 25-12, 25-18).

"He (Tavana) worked really hard to come back from an injury this fall and to have him out here playing great is just wonderful for us," BYU head coach Chris McGown said. "It was also nice to play with composure to get through our mistakes and win those sets. Ultimately we would like to come right out of the gates, play great and we need to find ways to do that." 

Tavana broke the record when he recorded his 539th career block early in the third set. He finished with eight blocks in the match and now has 541 for his career.

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Sophomore Taylor Sander led the Cougars with 11 kills in the match, while senior Robb Stowell finished with nine and Josue Rivera had seven. Joe Kauliakamoa finished with 33 of BYU’s 36 assists to lead the match. 

The first set went back and forth throughout, and featured 11 ties. Pacific took the early lead at 4-2 and did not lose the lead until the Cougars took over at 10-9. BYU took the lead for good after rallying to go up 19-18. Taylor Sander and Josue Rivera recorded three kills apiece to lead the Cougars in the set.

BYU controlled game two from the beginning and led the entire way. Sander and Stowell tied for the game lead with four kills apiece, while Kauliakamoa recorded 12 assists. Sander also recorded two aces in the game while Tavana scored the final two points to secure the 13-point set win.  

"Having those two (Sander and Tavana) on the court and healthy is wonderful for us," McGown said. "Taylor makes everybody better and Futi is feeling physically good and has been performing really well in games even though he has been limited in practice." 

The Cougars took an early lead in the third set before Pacific came back to tie it at 11. BYU responded by scoring nine of the next 10 points to go up 20-12. Pacific managed a slight comeback by outscoring BYU 6-5 the rest of the way, but it was too little too late and BYU closed the match after three sets.

BYU and Pacific will face off in the Smith Fieldhouse again tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. MST. The game can be seen live on BYUtv and online live at byutvsports.com/gameday.

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Cougars: 13-4, 9-3 MPSF
Tigers: 6-12, 4-9 MPSF

The No. 5 BYU men's volleyball team will finish up its 8-match home swing this weekend with matches against No. 11 Pacific on Friday and Saturday, March 9 and 10. Both matches will be shown live on BYUtv and online for free at byutvsports.com/gameday.

BYU is carrying a 13-4 overall record after winning last weekend’s matches against Pepperdine at home. Senior Robb Stowell leads the Cougar offense on 224 kills with three other players recording 100+ kills and seven more recording double-digit kills. Taylor Sander, Josue Rivera and Russ Lavaja have totaled 176, 171 and 111 kills this season, respectively.

Lavaja leads the team with 108 blocks and is third all-time in BYU history for total blocks in his career. Tavana is currently second all-time in BYU history for total blocks in his career and is just five away from becoming number one. Joe Kauliakamoa leads the squad with 609 assists so far this year.

The Cougars are averaging 3.2 blocks per set compared to the 1.7 from their opponents.

The Tigers come to Provo with a 6-12 overall record and 4-9 record in league play. Taylor Hughes and Florian Gornik lead the Pacific offense with 212 and 210 kills, respectively. Seven other players join Hughes and Gornik with double-digit kills but no one else has more than 100.

The Tigers are 1-4 in their last five matches with their most recent match ending in a sweep of UC San Diego.

The Cougars are 27-5 all-time against the Tigers and 15-0 against them at home.

Live stats are available for both matches through the BYU men’s volleyball schedule page and updates are on the BYU men’s volleyball Twitter page.