NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – Freshman Tim Dobbert led No. 2 BYU men’s volleyball to victory with a career-high 15 kills in a 3-1 (25-22, 25-23, 26-28, 25-18) win against Cal State Northridge Saturday on the road.

"It was a little bit of an interesting match tonight," BYU head coach Chris McGown said. "I thought we actually played with pretty good energy. Second night in a road trip, it's hard to go back-to-back, especially after a frustrating loss last night. For sure it's really nice to get the win against a good team here."

BYU vs. CSUN Box Score

The 6-foot-10 opposite from Aichelberg, Germany, also had a .429  hit clip, a pair of aces and three blocks. Senior Taylor Sander added 13 kills, four digs and four blocks. Leading at the net, Devin Young had six blocks for the Cougars (13-4, 13-2 MPSF). Tyler Heap contributed 38 assists and Jaylen Reyes had 12 digs.

BYU took the lead to start the first set, extending that lead to 11-7 on a Sander ace. Cal State Northridge (6-11, 6-10 MPSF) fought back and tied the score at 14, then tied it three more times until a service error and kill by Kiril Meretev pushed the Cougars ahead 19-17. Dobbert’s seventh kill of the night gave BYU a 24-20 lead in the set, and despite a Matador rally attempt the Cougars finished the set with a 25-22 win.

Dobbert continued his dominant play with back-to-back aces in the second set, giving BYU a 5-2 advantage. The Cougars stayed in control until Matador Sam Holt strung together three straight kills to give CS Northridge a 9-8 lead.

Two Matador errors gave the lead back to BYU at 19-18 before CS Northridge answered with a kill and an ace to regain the lead. Heap set Sander for a kill to tie the score at 20. Devin Young’s service ace put BYU in the lead 23-22, and Hatch wrapped up the set 25-23 on a kill.

BYU opened the third set with four kills, but CS Northridge’s Holt tied up the score 4-4 with a kill. A tug-of-war for the lead ended with a 3-0 Cougar run, capped by another kill by Dobbert that gave BYU a 13-10 lead. Rivera made the BYU advantage seven points at 21-14, BYU’s largest lead of the match, on a kill that finished a 5-0 Cougar run. The Matadors answered with their own 5-0 run, cutting dangerously close at 22-21. The teams fought through four ties until CS Northridge pulled off the win 28-26.

Service errors plagued the Matadors, helping the Cougars get off to an 8-4 start in the fourth set. Up 16-12, BYU let CS Northridge come back to tie the set 18-18 on an ace. The Cougars then launched an attack to secure the win, putting up seven straight points that included two kills and a block from Sander to finish the set 25-18.

BYU returns to the Smith Fieldhouse for a five-match home stand, starting with UC Irvine on Friday at 7 p.m. MDT on BYUtv.

PROVO, Utah—No. 2 BYU men’s volleyball hits the road again for matches against No. 3 Long Beach State Friday and Cal State Northridge Saturday. Both matches begin at 7 p.m. PST.

BYU (12-3, 12-1 MPSF) took down the 49ers in their last meeting, defeating then-No. 1 Long Beach State 3-1 in the Cougars’ home opener. BYU followed that performance by taking down the Matadors in straight sets the following night.

Riding a six-match win streak, the Cougars lead the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with only one loss in conference play. BYU avenged its lone conference loss Saturday by sweeping the Waves at the Smith Fieldhouse.

Taylor Sander leads the Cougars and is No. 2 in the nation with 4.57 kills per set. Michael Hatch is No. 3 in the nation with 1.51 blocks per set.

Long Beach State’s Taylor Crabb leads the nation with 5.05 kills per set, helped out by Connor Olbright who leads the nation in assists per set with 11.86.

Cal State Northridge is led on offense by Damani Lenore and Sam Holt with 3.06 kills per set and 2.83 kills per set, respectively.

Links to live stats for both matches and live video streaming for the Cal State Northridge match will be available on the BYU men’s volleyball schedule page.

The weekend matches are BYU’s last road matches until April.