PROVO, Utah – The No. 2 BYU men’s volleyball team earned its fifth sweep of the season on Friday night after a 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-15) victory over the visiting Pacific Tigers.

Ben Patch led all players with 13 kills and a .417 attack. Josue Rivera and Taylor Sander each added five kills to the winning effort, and Sander also added three aces.

"I was glad we finished the way we did," said BYU head coach Chris McGown. "I didn’t think we started with very much energy. We were content to let them make mistakes rather than us go score points. I was glad to see that we finished strong. We had a really nice third set and we actually had one of our better passing nights. We’ve been working on that, so it’s nice to see that coming around a little bit."

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The Cougars hit .265 as a team compared to .133 from the Tigers.

After a couple errors from Pacific, BYU took an early 3-1 lead in set one but the Tigers fought their way back in it. The set tied up at 3s, 4s, 5s, and 6s before it was Pacific’s turn to take the lead at 8-6. This time the Cougars fought back, tying the score at 9-9. The teams traded points from there until a Sander kill sparked BYU on a 5-0 run to give them a 20-15 advantage and the eventual 25-20 set victory.

The teams exchanged points for much of the second set, until a 4-0 run in BYU’s favor gave the home team a 14-10 lead. The Cougars wouldn’t relinquish the lead through the set and took the 25-20 set victory for a 2-0 lead in the match.

Through two sets, Patch was leading all players with 10 kills and a .400 attack.

BYU took the lead right away in set three, going up 5-2 after an ace from Patch and reaching its largest lead of the match at 22-12. The Cougars took the dominating 25-15 set victory and finished the sweep. 

"Stanford’s going to be a much different team tomorrow and they’re going to really, really bring it," McGown said. "We’re just going to try and refocus our energy and get some good rest tonight, and see if we can be better tomorrow."

The Cougars play again at home tomorrow night at 7 p.m. MST, hosting No. 5 Stanford. The match will be broadcast live on BYUtv.

#2 BYU (9-3, 8-2 MPSF)
#14 Pacific (4-6, 5-6 MPSF)
#5 Stanford (9-5, 6-5 MPSF)

PROVO, Utah – After its first road trip of the season, the No. 2 BYU men’s volleyball team returns to the Smith Fieldhouse and hosts No. 14 Pacific and No. 5 Stanford, Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Both matches are slated to begin at 7 p.m. MST and will be broadcast live on BYUtv.

After holding the top ranking in the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s poll for four-straight weeks, the Cougars dropped a spot to No. 2 after splitting matches on the road against then-No. 5 Pepperdine and then-No. 10 USC. BYU remains atop the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings.

After falling behind 2-0 at Pepperdine, BYU forced a fifth set before falling 3-2. The Cougars bounced back Saturday night, picking up their first road win of 2013 at USC (3-1). Junior Taylor Sander recorded 23 kills with a .543 clip, while tying a career-high 10 digs and two aces. Sander has recorded double-digit kills in all 12 matches.

Senior Russ Lavaja is No. 2 in the MPSF in blocks, averaging 1.38, and No. 3 in hitting percentage with a .496 clip. Lavaja is tied with Russell Holmes at No. 2 in career block assists in the BYU rally-scoring era with 477.

As a team, the Cougars are No. 1 in hitting percentage (.326) and blocks (3.11) in the conference. BYU is also holding opponents’ hitting percentage to .237, the second-best mark.

Pacific

The Tigers, currently tied for 10th in the MPSF standings, are coming off back-to-back road losses at Long Beach State (3-0) and Cal State Northridge (3-1).

Javier Caceres popped up 17 digs at Long Beach State, an MPSF-high this year for any three-set match. Caceres is No. 1 in the conference in digs with 3.10 per set.

Pacific is ranked third in opponent hitting percentage (.252) and in blocks (2.60) in the MPSF.

BYU owns the series record with Pacific, 29-5. The Cougars topped the Tigers in 2012, 3-0.

Stanford

The Cardinal started last weekend with a 3-1 victory at Cal State Northridge but went on to fall 3-0 at Long Beach State. In its win, Stanford hit a season-best .466, sixth-highest in the MPSF this year, guided by a .692 (29-2-39) clip over sets two and three.

Brian Cook led the Cardinal against Cal State Northridge with 21 kills on a .459 clip. Cook is No. 4 in the MPSF in points with 4.75 per set.

Stanford is No. 5 in the MPSF standings. The Cardinal holds three top-five conference team rankings. Stanford is No. 3 in service aces (1.24), No. 5 in kills (12.78) and No. 5 in assists (12.0).

BYU leads the series with the Cardinal 25-15, however, Stanford came away with wins in all three 2012 meetings. The Cardinal won both regular season contests at the Smith Fieldhouse, 3-1 and 3-0, before knocking the Cougars out of the MPSF semifinals with a 3-1 victory.

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