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Jan 12 | 07:00 PM
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JMorris
| Posted: 12 Jan 2013 | Updated: 8 Nov 2020
PROVO, Utah - Three players finished with double-digit kills to lead the No. 2 BYU men’s volleyball team over No. 13 Lewis 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-14) at the Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday night.
After losing to Lewis (1-4) last night in five sets, BYU evened the score tonight with a three-set victory to improve its record to 3-1 on the season.
Freshman Ben Patch and junior Taylor Sander led the Cougars offensively with 12 kills each. Middle blocker Russ Lavaja added 11 kills and led the team in hitting percentage with .846, and total blocks with three. Josue Rivera smashed nine kills and Devin Young added another eight for the Cougars, while Ryan Boyce paced the offense with 44 assists.
Patch finished the match hitting .800 with 12 kills on 15 attempts for the fifth-best hitting percentage (minimum 12 kills) in BYU rally history.
BYU outhit Lewis .525 to .262 and limited its team errors to take the win from the Flyers.
In set one, BYU and Lewis traded points early. At 10-8, Patch unleashed a cross-court kill to push BYU up by three. BYU held the three-point lead until the 23-20 mark when Lewis grabbed two to cut the lead to one and force a BYU timeout. Out of the timeout, Rivera notched set point for the Cougars on a back-row attack and then a Flyer error gave BYU the 25-22 victory. Patch led the Cougars with seven kills in the set.
BYU jumped ahead early in the second set and, at 13-10, went on a 4-0 run to grab its biggest lead of the night. The Cougars held onto the momentum and improved its hitting percentage to from .487 to .545 en route to the 25-16 win.
Rivera’s second ace of the night put BYU up 2-0 early in the third set, but Lewis quickly answered to tie the game at 4-4. With BYU up by one at 9-8, Lavaja pounded his ninth kill of the night to spur a 12-4 run for the Cougars. Sander and Young contributed to the run with three kills each. At 23-14, Sander added two-straight kills to take the three-set victory for the Cougars.
BYU plays next on Jan. 18 against No. 1 UC Irvine at the Smith Fieldhouse at 7 p.m. MST.
wweekes
| Posted: 8 Jan 2013 | Updated: 8 Nov 2020
PROVO, Utah - Facing its only non-conference opponent of the season, the No. 2 BYU men’s volleyball team hosts No. 13 Lewis Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. MST at the Smith Fieldhouse.
Junior All-American Taylor Sander leads BYU (2-0, 2-0 MPSF) with 4.57 kills per set and a .519 hitting percentage while also contributing stats in every category. Sander added two service aces over the weekend to move his career total to 87. The outside hitter needs three more to pass Rafael Paal for the No. 2 all-time spot for the Cougars.
Senior middle blocker Russ Lavaja leads BYU with 17 blocks while senior setter Ryan Boyce has tallied 70 assists.
The Cougars are coming off two wins against Hawai’i where they came away with 3-0 and 3-1 final match scores.
Defending 2012 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Champion Lewis (0-3) entered the season ranked No. 5 but dropped to No. 13 after three losses in the UCSB Asics Invitational. The Flyers fell to UC San Diego 3-2 before dropping another to then-No. 13 UC Santa Barbara 3-0. Lewis finished the tournament with a 3-1 loss to then-No. 15 California Baptist.
Lewis sophomore Geoff Powell was named MIVA Offensive Player of the Week for his performance over the weekend. Powell posted a career-high 26 kills against UC San Diego. The outside hitter led the Flyers with 16 kills against No. 15 California Baptist on Saturday.
BYU leads the series 10-1 and took the most recent contest 3-0 in 2011. The Cougars are undefeated against the Flyers at home (7-0).
Both matches will be broadcast live on BYUtv.
Follow the team on Twitter @BYUvolleyball and Facebook.
