Cougars finish regular season in Arizona

PROVO, Utah — No. 11 BYU men’s volleyball travels to Arizona to play its final regular-season match against MPSF foe Grand Canyon on Thursday at 7 p.m. MDT.

Week 13 Notes

No. 11 BYU (12-10, 6-5 MPSF)

• The Cougars lost both matches on a California road trip last week at Concordia Irvine and No. 8 USC.

• Sophomore opposite hitter Gabi Garcia Fernandez had a career-high 31 kills in the five-set loss against Concordia, the fourth-most for a BYU player in the rally scoring era and the most for a Cougar since Ben Patch had 32 in 2016.

• Libero Zach Hendrickson had his best week of the season, tying his career high with 11 digs at Concordia, and following it up with eight at USC on Saturday.

• Freshman outside hitter Davide Gardini once again shined on both sides of the ball for BYU, racking up his third double-double of the season with 20 kills, 10 digs and a career-high six blocks against Concordia.

• The Cougars rank fifth in the nation in blocks per set with a 2.54 average, which leads the MPSF. They have also had 12-or-more blocks in five matches this season, including 14 last week against Concordia.  Starting middle blockers Miki Jauhiainen and Felipe de Brito Ferreira both rank in the top 25 in the nation in blocks per set, with 1.05 and 1.00 averages, respectively.

Grand Canyon (12-14, 2-8 MPSF)

• The Lopes dropped two conference matches last week, first against No. 4 Pepperdine on Friday and then against No. 5 UCLA on Sunday.

• BYU has yet to lose a match to GCU in the all-time series with a perfect 4-0 record, including a win earlier this season in Provo.

• The Cougars and the Lopes sit in first and second in the MPSF in blocks per set right now, with 2.54 and 2.28 averages, respectively. GCU leads the conference in opponent hitting percentage at .242. The two standouts on the defensive end for the Lopes are middle blocker Alex Shmelev with 1.03 blocks per set, and libero Cole Udall with 2.06 digs per set.

The match will be streamed live on YouTube and live stats can be found on the schedule page.