LA JOLLA, Calif.  – The No. 2 BYU men’s volleyball team made quick work of UC San Diego on the road, sweeping the Tritons (25-20, 27-25, 25-15) Saturday.

“We played really well throughout the entire match,” BYU head coach Chris McGown said. “At times San Diego made it tough on us to kill the ball. They made some nice runs and put some pressure on us. The guys kept rolling through, sticking to the principles that we talked about.”

Junior Taylor Sander led BYU (13-3, 12-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) with 14 kills and a .407 attack. Freshman Ben Patch followed with 11 kills and a .455 clip, while contributing five digs and three blocks. Junior Devin Young added seven kills while hitting .636.

The Cougars outhit the Tritons (6-13, 3-11) .427 - .250.

BYU jumped out strong with a 4-0 lead in the first set behind kills from Russ Lavaja and Josue Rivera, but the Tritons responded and closed the gap, tying it at 9.  The Cougars forged ahead and created a 15-11 advantage following kills from Sander and Lavaja before a pair of service aces from Patch widened BYU’s lead to 19-13. UCSD came within four, but it wasn’t enough as the Cougars closed out the set 25-20 with a .500 attack. 

After a 2-2 tie, BYU posted six unanswered points in the start of the second set. Sander gave the Cougars a 15-8 margin after back-to-back kills. Trailing 20-16, the Tritons pieced together four straight kills to tie the contest until an error put BYU back on top. A kill by Rivera positioned the Cougars at 23-21, but UCSD responded with two points of its own. The Tritons stuck with BYU and answered each point until Sander finished off the set, 27-25, on the Cougars’ third set point.

“We won a close second set but we just wanted to stay steady,” McGown said. “We got some nice contribution from guys off the bench tonight.”

The teams exchanged points to kick off the third with UCSD taking an 8-7 lead. The Triton lead didn’t last long as BYU flipped the score in its favor, 14-10, aided by two Sander aces. The Cougars extended the 8-1 run to gain a seven-point advantage. A kill from Young and an ace from Rivera placed BYU up 20-12. The Cougars rallied for the last three points of the sets to secure the set, 25-15, and match victory.

BYU is back at home next weekend hosting Cal Baptist Friday and Saturday at the Smith Fieldhouse.

No. 2 BYU Cougars (11-3, 10-2 MPSF)
No. 1 UC Irvine Anteaters (14-3, 11-3 MPSF)
UC San Diego Tritons (6-11, 3-9 MPSF)

PROVO, Utah – Kicking off the second-half of its conference play, the No. 2 BYU men’s volleyball team is back on the road for its second trip to California to take on No. 1 UC Irvine on Friday and UC San Diego on Saturday at 7 p.m. PST.

The Cougars, who hold the top spot in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings, are coming off home wins over then-No. 14 Pacific, 3-0, and then-No. 5 Stanford, 3-2. The win over the Cardinal snapped a six-match losing streak in the series. Freshman Ben Patch collected a career-high 26 kills while hitting .465. Junior Taylor Sander added 25 kills, seven blocks and three aces.

Patch hit a collective .441 for the week with 39 kills to garner MPSF and AVCA Player of the Week accolades.

Freshman Michael Hatch leads the MPSF in blocks with 1.62 per set. Senior Russ Lavaja is ranked third in the conference in hitting percentage with a .489 clip and holds the fourth-best blocks average with 1.33. After recording six service aces over the weekend, Sander is No. 4 in the conference in aces with a .39 average.

As a team, BYU is first in the MPSF in hitting percentage (.328), opponent hitting percentage (.242) and blocks (3.06).

UC Irvine
The defending national champions are riding an MPSF season-long win streak 10 matches with two decisions over Hawai’i early last week. Within the 10-match win streak, UCI has trailed in sets on five occasions. Collin Mehring hit .667 for the Hawai’i series (18-2-24), and tied a conference season-high .800 (13-1-15) on the first night.

The Anteaters look to avenge earlier losses against Cal Baptist and BYU this week. UCI has not dropped a match since the 3-1 loss to BYU at the Smith Fieldhouse Jan. 18.

Mehring has the best hitting percentage in the MPSF with a .547 clip while Michael Brinkley is averaging 2.40 digs to hold the No. 3 spot. UC Irvine ranks second in hitting percentage (.323) and kills (13.06) in the conference.

The Cougars own the series record with the Anteaters, 37-14. BYU is 16-7 when playing at UCI.

The Anteaters host Cal Baptist Wednesday before welcoming the Cougars to the Bren Events Center.

UC San Diego
Carl Eberts had 15 kills with a .300 attack at Hope International last Friday when the Tritons dropped a 3-0 match.

Chase Frishman is second in digs in the MPSF with 2.40 per set.

BYU has never lost a match to UCSD, leading the series 33-0. The Cougars previously topped the Tritons 3-0 in Provo Jan. 19.

The Tritons travel to Cal Baptist Friday before hosting BYU on Saturday at the RIMAC Arena in La Jolla, Calif.

Follow @BYUvolleyball on Twitter for match updates. Live stats will be provided for both matches at ucsdtritons.com and ucirvinesports.com. Video streaming will be availabl for the match against UCSD with registration.