Four-Set Match Ends in Big Upset

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PROVO -- The No. 6 BYU men’s volleyball team snapped No. 1 UC Irvine’s seven-match winning streak in a four-match (30-24, 20-30, 30-18, 30-28) upset victory at home Thursday night. With the win the Cougars improve to 15-9 on the season and 11-6 in MPSF play.

Junior Andrew Stewart led the team in kills, racking up 15 while Kent Tuttle posted a .350 hitting percentage on the night.

"Kent had a really great match for us tonight," said BYU head coach Shawn Patchell. "He challenged the block all night and only had three errors. He's been working on that in practice."

Tuttle seemed to be the spark for the Cougars in the third set. The junior left near the end of the first after suffering a head injury while diving for a ball, requiring him to get ten staples.

BYU opened the scoring with a kill by Stewart. UC Irvine quickly responded and the teams traded points for the first third of the set. The Cougars started pulling away with 4-1 run to bring the score to 19-14. BYU kept the lead the rest of the set, eventually finishing things off at 30-24.

The second set belonged to the Anteaters, who went on a 7-1 run to lead the Cougars 18-12. UC Irvine never looked back, maintaining its lead through the remainder of the set. Despite efforts to even the score, BYU was unable to come back and fell 20-30.

With Tuttle back in the match, BYU went on an 8-0 run. The Anteaters lagged the rest of the set, never coming within less than nine points and were held to a .048 hitting percentage. Russell Lavaja sealed the set for the Cougars with a kill to make the final score 30-18.

"I told Yamil [Perez] to keep setting me the ball so I could get back in the groove," said Tuttle.

The fourth and final set was back-and-forth until both teams were tied at ten-all. But after that point, BYU’s lead started mounting and the Anteaters found themselves trailing by as much as six points. Victory was in reach for the Cougars, who had six match points before a UC Irvine service error gave them the win.

"UCI is No. 1 for a reason," said Patchell. "But we're peaking at just the right time--not just tonight. This has been a long time coming. We have more work to do tomorrow night."

The volleyball team will be back in action Friday night against UC Irvine. The match begins at 7 p.m. at the Smith Fieldhouse. Fans are encouraged to attend as BYU tries to break the NCAA attendance-high in 2008.

Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young Univ. Cougar VolleyBall
              UC Irvine vs BYU Cougars (Apr 02, 2009 at Provo, UT)
   UC Irvine              |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2  Wilson, Taylor......  4|  5   2  16  .188|  1|  1   4|  3|  3| 2  1  2|  0
3  Ammerman, Ryan......  4|  2   1   5  .200| 40|  0   2|  0|  6| 0  2  0|  0
7  DuFault, Jordan.....  3|  5   8  19 -.158|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 1  3  2|  0
9  Clark, Carson.......  4| 14   7  37  .189|  1|  0   5|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0
12 D'Amore, Austin.....  4|  4   4  10  .000|  0|  0   3|  0|  1| 0  0  1|  0
19 Wynne, Kevin........  4|  6   0   9  .667|  1|  1   3|  0|  2| 0  7  0|  0
1  Steller,Jon.........  4|  2   2   7  .000|  0|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
4  Spittle, Anthony....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  6|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
5  Reinholm, Cole......  3|  6   0  12  .500|  0|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0
6  Spittle, Nick.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
8  Asuka, Brent........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0| 13| 0  0  0|  0
15 Yoder, Cory.........  2|  6   3  14  .214|  1|  0   1|  0|  2| 1  1  0|  0
17 Simmons, Bryan......  1|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 51  27 130  .185| 51|  2  27|  3| 39| 4 15  5|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12  8  26  .154   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  12  3  26  .346   UC Irvine........... (1) 24 30 18 28  19-4, 14-3 MPSF
   3  11  9  42  .048   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 20 30 30  15-9, 11-6 MPSF
   4  16  7  36  .250
   BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1  TUTTLE, Kent........  3| 10   3  20  .350|  0|  0   3|  0|  4| 1  2  1|  0
5  LAVAJA, Russell.....  4|  6   3  16  .188|  2|  1   4|  0|  2| 2  5  0|  0
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  4|  1   0   3  .333| 45|  1   5|  0|  5| 0  3  2|  0
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  4| 15   7  34  .235|  1|  0   0|  1|  5| 1  4  0|  0
17 TAVANA, Futi........  4|  9   4  19  .263|  1|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  4  0|  0
23 DA PRON, Alex.......  4|  6   4  19  .105|  0|  0   2|  1|  8| 0  5  0|  0
3  CHILTON, Reed.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
4  SILVA, Joel.........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0| 12| 0  0  0|  0
8  KAULIAKAMOA, Joe....  4|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
10 TAYLOR, Mat.........  2|  3   5  10 -.200|  0|  1   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
11 SAGERS, Kevin.......  1|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
18 HIAPO, BJ...........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 52  26 123  .211| 50|  3  21|  2| 40| 4 23  3|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  3  26  .385   Site: Provo, UT (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  11 12  37 -.027   Date: Apr 02, 2009   Attend: 2140   Time: 2h 13m
   3  16  5  33  .333   Referees: Mike Farish, Tom Given, Trent Mano
   4  12  6  27  .222