STOCKTON, Calif. – The No. 1 BYU men’s volleyball team swept Pacific on the road (25-21, 25-23, 25-19) Friday.

The Cougars, who have secured the regular season MPSF title and No. 1 seed in the MPSF tournament, improve to 21-4 overall and 20-3 in the MPSF. Pacific falls to 8-19 overall and 5-18 in MPSF play.

“We played a little bit of a different lineup, trying to get some of our other guys some reps,” BYU head coach Chris McGown said. “They came in and played hard. Overall, we were a little bit ragged having been on the road and having some different guys in the lineup. We worked hard and we did what we do and turned a few points and kept grinding it out.”

Taylor Sander had 11 kills, four blocks, two digs and a service ace for BYU. Devin Young had a match-high six blocks and added eight kills.

The Cougars out-blocked the Tigers 12.0 – 6.5.

The Cougars took a 2-0 lead in the first set but the Tigers matched it and stayed on pace before taking a 5-4 advantage. Ben Patch and Michael Hatch posted a block to put the Cougars back on top and Patch followed it up with a kill to extend the advantage to 10-8. After Pacific answered with back-to-back points of its own, the Cougars marched on with a balanced offensive attack for a 6-1 run and the 16-11 lead. BYU held a four-point cushion until it took a 24-19 lead and the Tigers put up a pair of points to cut it to 24-21. Young finished off the set on the next point for BYU to go up 1-0 in the match.

The second set saw a back-and-forth battle. BYU took a 9-7 lead after a service ace from Ryan Boyce but the Tigers quickly evened it back up. BYU finally broke the trend and went on a 3-0 run for a 14-11 lead but the Tigers bounced back to even the set at 16-16. Tied at 19 apiece, Pacific fired off a pair of service aces to take a 21-19 lead. Sander sparked a 5-1 run to position BYU with set point at 24-22. With a kill from Phil Fuchs, the Cougars grabbed the set 25-23.

Pacific jumped out early in the third set, 4-1, and held the lead until BYU flipped the score in its favor, 12-11, after two kills from Fuchs. Sander sparked a 6-0 BYU run to widen the gap to 19-13. The Cougars capitalized on Tiger errors during the run and a kill and ace from Fuchs. Pacific ended the run and created a 6-1 run of its own with straight kills to come within one, 20-19. A Sander kill turned the momentum back in BYU’s favor as the Cougars went back up 24-19. Ending the set on a 5-0 run, a Tiger error secured the match for BYU.

The Cougars wrap up their regular season Saturday night at No. 8 Stanford. The match is slated to start at 7 p.m. PDT and video streaming is available.

No. 1 BYU (20-4, 19-3 MPSF)
Pacific (8-18, 5-17 MPSF)
No. 8 Stanford (14-11, 11-11 MPSF)

PROVO, Utah – The No. 1 BYU men’s volleyball teams wraps up its regular season on the road with matches against Pacific Friday and No. 8 Stanford Saturday, both at 7 p.m. PDT.

The Cougars are ranked No. 1 in the AVCA national poll for sixth-straight week, the longest streak since 2008 when the Cougars held the top spot for seven weeks.

With a win at UC Santa Barbara last Friday, BYU secured the MPSF regular-season title, its first title since 2004. The Cougars are also the No. 1 seed in the MPSF tournament, beginning with the quarterfinal round April 20 in Provo.

Taylor Sander had an 18-kill, 11-dig double-double in the comeback win at UCSB. The Cougars were down 13-11 in set five before taking the final four points. Sander also served three aces and had five blocks. Ben Patch added 19 kills and eight digs.

The victory extended the Cougars’ win streak to 12 matches, tying for the fourth longest in the rally-scoring era at BYU. The streak was ended the next night at UCLA in a 3-0 loss.

BYU is No. 1 in the MPSF in hitting percentage (.330), opponent hitting percentage (.240) and blocks (2.93).

Michael Hatch is tied for the best blocks average in the MPSF with 1.41 and Russ Lavaja is No. 3 in hitting percentage with a .439 attack. Sander holds the third-best points average in the conference with 4.76 and is fourth in kills with a 4.01 average

Pacific

Pacific is coming off a five-set win at UC San Diego last Friday where Adam Troy (17 kills/10 digs) and Taylor Hughes (16 kills/14 digs) earned double-doubles. The Tigers dropped the next match to UC Irvine 3-0.

The Tigers are fifth in the MPSF in blocks with 2.60 per set. Javier Caceres has the best digs average in the conference with 2.73.

The Cougars are 30-5 all-time against the Tigers and swept Pacific in the teams’ last meeting Feb. 22.

Stanford

Stanford is coming off a straight-set win at UC San Diego. Eric Mochalski hit .533 (10-2-15) in the win.

The Cardinal holds the third-best digs average in the MPSF with 9.26 and is fifth in opponent hitting percentage with a .257 clip.

Brian Cook is third in the conference in kills with 4.13 per set and is fifth in points with a 4.73 average.

BYU owns the overall series record against Stanford 26-15. The Cougars edged out the Cardinal in their Feb. 23 meeting.

Stanford takes on Cal Baptist Friday before welcoming BYU Saturday.

Video, audio and live stats will be available for the match at Pacific, and live stats and video will be available for the match against Stanford. You can also follow the team on Twitter @BYUvolleyball.