PROVO, Utah – The No. 5 BYU Cougars were able to sweep (25-21, 25-20, 26-24) the No. 11 Pacific Tigers for the second night in a row in the Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday.

"I thought we did something in the third set that I haven’t seen us do all season long and that is to stay composed in a set when we were getting kind of beat up," BYU head coach Chris McGown said. "With that composure we were able to slowly turn it around and get the win. We’ve been talking all season about just playing one point at a time and I saw that tonight. We have to keep playing disciplined volleyball."

Taylor Sander posted a hitting percentage of .560, leading the Cougars in kills with 15. Sander was followed closely by Robb Stowell and Josue Rivera who recorded 11 and nine kills, respectively. Stowell also led the team in digs with nine.

Stowell completed his all-around strong performance with five blocks, including one solo block. Russ Lavaja also added five blocks. Setter Joe Kauliakamoa handed out 39 assists in the match.

"This is a team with a ton of heart," McGown said. "I think it really speaks to their mental maturity. They are starting to trust each other and trust our system, and that's getting us wins."

The Cougars got off to a strong start in the first set. Although Pacific stayed within five points of BYU throughout the set, the Cougars were able to gradually distance themselves with strong hitting by the their frontline. They were led by sophomore standout Sander who posted seven kills in the set.

The second set began with the two teams exchanging points back-and-forth until with the score tied at seven-all, BYU was finally able to record back-to-back points off kills by Sander and Kauliakamoa to take a 9-7 lead. The Tigers were unable to tie the score again in the set. There was only one block in the entire second set but it came when it mattered most as Lavaja and Josue Rivera combined to block a Pacific kill to give BYU the 25-20 set victory.

The Cougars found themselves trailing the Tigers by six after a 5-0 Pacific run in the third set but little-by-little BYU was able to chip away at the Tiger’s lead, eventually tying the score at 20-all. The Cougars would take a 22-21 lead off impressive play on the net by Stowell and Russ Lavaja but it was a kill by Lavaja that sealed the deal for BYU, 26-24.

Next up the Cougars will travel to Hawaii to play against the University of Hawaii on Mar. 16 and 17 at 7 p.m. HST.

Quick Look
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.