PROVO, Utah – Taylor Sander led No. 1 seed BYU to its second consecutive Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship title with a sweep (25-23, 25-22, 25-22) over No. 3 seed Stanford.

“I thought we put together a wonderful tournament,” BYU head coach Chris McGown said. “There were some questions about our team going into it. We backed our way into it with a couple of tough road weekends, but we put that behind us and played great the whole way through.”

BYU vs. Stanford Box Score

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Sander had a team-high 15 kills and two aces to tie the BYU single-season record (51) in the rally-scoring era. Robbie Sutton contributed 29 assists and Devin Young added six kills, an ace and a match-high four block assists. Sander was named the MPSF tournament MVP and was joined by Sutton and Young on the all-tournament team.

As a team, BYU (21-8, 18-6 MPSF) had six aces to only one for Stanford (22-8, 17-7 MPSF) and doubled the Cardinal in blocks 8-4. The Cougars ended the MPSF tournament without losing a single set. The win also extended BYU’s longest home-court winning streak to 26 matches and snapped Stanford’s 13-match winning streak.

BYU is the second team in MPSF history to take the tournament title with three straight sweeps. The only other team to do so was the 1997 Stanford team.

BYU began the first set with a lot of energy going on a 4-0 run to take an 8-3 lead behind strong serving from Josue Rivera, including an ace. Stanford kept things close until Sander put down two kills with authority in a small 3-0 run to help BYU extend the lead back to five at 16-11.

The Cardinal didn’t back down and battled back to within one at 21-20, forcing a Cougar timeout. Young led a 3-0 charge out of the timeout with two kills and a block assist to get BYU to set point, leading 24-20. Stanford answered with three points in a row to make it 24-23, but a service error gave BYU the set one victory.

Stanford opened the second set with four straight points, but the Cougars fought their way back with three straight, including Sander’s second ace. Sander hit one off the block to give BYU its first lead of set two at 8-7. After Stanford briefly retook the lead at 10-8, Sander highlighted a 6-0 BYU run with two kills, a block assist and a perfect set to Tim Dobbert for the kill.

The Cardinal used several small runs to retake a 17-16 lead. With Stanford clinging to a 19-17 lead, the Cougars scored three of the next four points to tie the set at 20. Stanford called a timeout to slow BYU’s momentum after back-to-back kills by Sander gave the Cougars a 22-21 lead. Tied at 22, BYU ended the set with three straight points.

The third set began with the teams trading points until Stanford scored three straight to take a 6-3 lead. BYU rallied, as it had all night, to tie the set at eight and taking its first lead at 11-10. Not to be out done, the Cardinal used a 3-0 run to retake a 14-12 lead. With the Cougars trailing 18-17, Dobbert led a 4-0 run with a kill and a block assist to give BYU the 21-18 lead. A block by Rivera and Young pushed the Cougars’ lead to 23-19 and gave them the cushion they needed to close out the sweep.

The Cougars earned an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament in Chicago and wait for their seeding, which will be announced Sunday at 11 a.m. EDT. The selection show can be streamed live at NCAA.com.

MPSF All-Tournament Team

Matt West, Pepperdine

Jake Staahl, UC Santa Barbara

Brian Cook, Stanford

James Shaw, Stanford

Robbie Sutton, BYU

Devin Young, BYU

MVP- Taylor Sander, BYU

PROVO, Utah—After a home sweep Saturday in the quarterfinals, No. 1 seed BYU men’s volleyball returns to the Smith Fieldhouse to host the semifinals and final of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament Thursday and Saturday, respectively.

The Cougars will face No. 4 seed UC Santa Barbara Thursday at 8 p.m. MDT following No. 2 seed Pepperdine vs. No. 3 seed Stanford at 5 p.m. MDT. The final will be played Saturday at 7 p.m. MDT and will be broadcast live on BYUtv should the Cougars advance.

BYU (19-8, 18-6 MPSF) comes off a convincing 3-0 win against No. 8 seed USC Saturday, led by MPSF Player of the Year Taylor Sander’s 13 kills. Setter Robbie Sutton made his first career start, playing for regular starter Tyler Heap who is listed day to day with a sprained ankle. Sutton recorded a career-high 36 assists in the sweep of USC.

The Cougars held the Trojans to 48 combined points in the match, USC’s fewest in the rally-scoring era. USC's 13 points in the opening set were its fewest in a 25-point set since getting 13 versus Hawaii in 2002.

BYU is No. 4 in the most recent AVCA coaches poll, and UC Santa Barbara is No. 5. Pepperdine, who tied BYU for a share of the MPSF regular-season title, is No. 2 and Stanford is No. 3. The next poll will be released April 28.

UC Santa Barbara (18-8, 16-8 MPSF) fought off UCLA in a five-set home victory Saturday to earn the semifinal berth. Down 2-1 after three sets, the Gauchos came back from a 14-7 deficit to win the fourth set 25-20 and the fifth set 15-12 behind Evan Licht’s 17 kills.

Pepperdine (19-6, 18-6 MPSF) defeated Long Beach State in its quarterfinal match Saturday, taking down the 49ers 3-1 at home. The Waves lost the first set, but rattled off victories in the next three sets to take the match. Kyle Gerrans led the Waves with a career-high 17 kills, helped out by Matt West’s 44 assists.

Also battling in a five-set match in the quarterfinals, Stanford (21-7, 17-7 MPSF) managed to defeat defending national champion UC Irvine on the Cardinal’s home court. Stanford overcame a 13-12 Anteater lead in the fifth set to take the win, led by Brian Cook’s 21 kills and nine digs.

With no upsets in the quarterfinals, all four top seeds in the tournament reached the semifinal matches this season.

BYUtv will broadcast the UC Santa Barbara vs. BYU match Thursday and the championship match Saturday should BYU advance. Thursday’s semifinal between Stanford and Pepperdine will be streamed live on TheW.tv. Links to live video streaming and live stats for all matches, as well as live audio streaming for the UC Santa Barbara vs. BYU match and championship match, are available on the BYU men’s volleyball schedule page.

Full-session tickets, which include admission to both semifinal matches and the final, are on sale now at the BYU Ticket Office (1-800-322-BYU1). Semifinal tickets go on sale Thursday.