NORTHRIDGE -- No. 3 BYU was its own worst enemy as the Cougars committed 25 service errors and 36 hitting errors in a 30-27, 30-17, 21-30, 30-27 loss to No. 10 Cal-State Northridge.

With the loss BYU falls to 15-5 on the season and 11-4 in MPSF play. The loss also puts the Cougars two games behind second-place UC Irvine for second in conference play.

BYU hit just .186 as a team and were out-blocked 17.0 to 12.5. The middle play of Russell Holmes and Trent Sorensen was the bright spot for the Cougars. Holmes knocked down 13 kills while hitting .611 (13-2-18) while Sorensen added six kills on just seven swings while committing no errors (.857). Holmes also had a block solo and three block assists while knocking down a pair of service aces.

In the first set, the Cougars led early on, carrying building a six-point advantage on a Holmes kill to go ahead 16-10. Northridge came fighting back, going on a 10-3 run to take a 20-19 advantage on a service ace by Sean Pedersen. The two teams remained close, with the score knotted at 26. The set ended on another ace by Pedersen, a pair of service errors and an attack error by the Cougars.

In the second set, BYU raced to another early lead, jumping ahead, 5-2 on a Rodnei Santos kill. The Matadors countered with a 12-4 run to open a 14-9 run. After the two teams traded side outs, CSUN rolled off five consecutive points as the game turned lopsided. Northridge outscored BYU, 10-5 to end the set and give the Matadors a 2-0 advantage. BYU was held to a -.118 hitting percentage in the game while Northridge hit .368.

The Cougars began to look like themselves in the fourth set as they hit .600 and led most of the way. For the third consecutive game, BYU jumped to an early lead at 8-4. Unlike the first two, the Cougars widened their lead, rolling off four straight points to gain a 17-11 advantage. BYU further extended its lead to 20-12 on a combo block by Holmes and Yamil Perez. From that point, the teams traded side outs until the final point when Holmes smoked a service ace to give the Cougars the win.

The fourth game was tightly contested throughout with the Matadors consistently building two-point advantages only to have the Cougars erase those leads with mini-runs. With CSUN clinging to a 28-27 lead and serving, a questionable call gave the Matadors a 29-27 advantage and a match point. Isaac Kneubuhl knocked down Northridge's first match point to end BYU's six-match winning streak.

The same two teams face off again on Saturday night. First serve is set for 8 p.m. (MDT)

#3 BYU Cougars vs #10 Cal State Northridge
                      (Mar 23, 2007 at Northridge, Calif.)
    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  CALA, Yosleyder.....  4| 17   9  34  .235|  0|  3   6|  2|  7| 1  3  1|  0
 2  SANTOS, Rodnei......  2|  4   3   8  .125|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  3  1|  0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  4|  6   6  16  .000|  0|  0   6|  2|  5| 0  2  0|  0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  4| 13   2  18  .611|  1|  2   5|  0|  0| 1  3  2|  0
 13 STOWELL, Robby......  4| 10  13  29 -.103|  0|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  4  0|  0
 14 PEREZ, Yamil........  4|  1   0   1 1.000| 51|  0   3|  0|  4| 0  1  1|  1
 4  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  1|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 5  COX, Scott..........  3|  0   1   2 -.500|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 6  SILVA, Joel.........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  7| 0  0  0|  0
 7  SORENSEN, Trent.....  3|  6   0   7  .857|  1|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0
 17 STEWART, Andrew.....  2|  1   2   3 -.333|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 58  36 118  .186| 55|  5  25|  6| 30| 2 21  5|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17 10  37  .189   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  11 15  34 -.118   BYU Cougars......... (1) 27 17 30 27  15-5, 11-4
   3  15  3  20  .600   Cal State Northridge (3) 30 30 21 30  14-11, 8-8
   4  15  8  27  .259
    Cal State Northridge   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  Kneubuhl, Isaac.....  4|  8   4  20  .200|  2|  0   2|  0|  2| 3  4  0|  0
 2  Pedersen, Sean......  4|  3   1   5  .400| 32|  3   4|  0|  1| 1  2  0|  0
 3  Lischer, James......  4|  7   3  16  .250|  0|  1   1|  0|  1| 2  5  0|  0
 5  Waite, Kyle.........  4|  7   0  11  .636|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 1  3  1|  0
 7  Rhodes, Dan.........  4|  9   4  23  .217|  0|  1   3|  0|  3| 2  1  0|  0
 14 Vance, Eric.........  4|  8   6  20  .100|  1|  1   6|  4|  5| 0  1  0|  0
 6  Carter, Sean........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 9  Bluemling, Travis...  1|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 11 Gaudino, Mike.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 15 Adams, Ryan.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 42  18  95  .253| 39|  6  18|  5| 15| 9 16  1|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 17.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1   8  4  20  .200   Site: Northridge, Calif. (The Matadome)
   2   9  2  19  .368   Date: Mar 23, 2007   Attend: 842   Time:
   3   9  7  27  .074   Referees: Joe Sloate, Donna Hess
   4  16  5  29  .379

PROVO -- After spending most of the month of March playing in Southern California, BYU wraps up its six-match road swing as the Cougars head to Northridge to play Cal. State Northridge in a pair of matches this weekend. Thus far, BYU has won each of its four road matches on the road trip including a pair of sweeps at UC Santa Barbara two weeks ago. The Cougars have won six straight matches overall.

SERIES INFORMATION

The BYU-Cal. State Northridge series has been one of dominating streaks. The Cougars currently hold a 20-14 series advantage over the Matadors including an 8-7 record in Northridge. The series began with CSUN dominating the Cougars over the first five years of BYU's competition at the NCAA level. The Matadors won the first seven matches the two teams played and 10 of the first 13 overall.

In 1997, the series advantage began to tilt BYU's way. Beginning in the 1997 season, BYU won 12 consecutivbe matches that carried over until CS Northridge beat BYU on Mar. 22, 2003. Last season the Cougars swept the two matches over the Matadores for the first time since the 2002 season.

LUCKY NUMBER .300

BYU is a perfect 15-0 this season in matches that they hit over .300. Conversely, the Cougars are 0-4 in matches where they hit under .300.

BYU IN THE MPSF TOURNAMENT

Since 1993, BYU has qualified for the MPSF postseason tournament in 12 of 13 seasons including nine 10 consecutive trips. The Cougars all-time recording the MPSF tournament is 15-10. BYU has won the MPSF tournament three times and hold an 8-5 record in the first round, 4-4 record in the semifinals and a perfect 3-0 record in tournament finals. BYU has lost in the first round of the MPSF tourney in two consecutive seasons including a 3-1 setback to Long Beach State last year. The Cougars won consecutive MPSF tournament championships in 2003 and 2004.

EVERY THREE YEARS...

Since BYU's first national championship in 1999, the Cougars have won the NCAA tournament a total of three times (1999, 2001 and 2004). Since the '99 season, BYU has won the NCAA Championship at least once every three years.

BRING OUT THE BROOMS

With the Cougars sweep over Loyola-Chicage Jan. 27, it marked a record sixth consecutive match BYU won in straight sets. Previously the record was in 2001 when the Cougars swept five consecutive matches. The record for sweeps in a season was the 1999, 30-1 National Championship squad that swept 20 matches. With the Cougars sweep over UC Irvine Feb. 2, they upped their record to seven consecutive sweeps. BYU is currently on a three-match streak of sweeps and have swept four of its last six.

OFFENSIVE ONSLAUGHT

BYU's hitting performance in Saturday evening's three-set sweep of USC ranks third all-time in BYU rally scoring history. The Cougars hit .571 (61-9-91) as a team. BYU was led by Yosleyder Cala's .905 (19-0-21) hitting percentage, while Robby Stowell hit .727 (17-1-22). Russell Holmes and Ivan Perez also hit over .600 on the evening. The Cougars all-time best hitting performance was also against USC on Jan. 31, 2001 when BYU hit .655 (42-4-48).

HOLMES RECORD WATCH

Russell Holmes created a wall in the Saturday evening Hawaii match. In the sweep, Holmes knocked down seven block assists and a career-high four block solos in just three sets. The four block solos ranks second alone all-time in BYU history. The Cougars record for block solos is five by Kevin Hambly on Feb. 29, 1992 against Ball State. Holmes is currently second in the nation with 17 block solos. He is just five block solos away from tying the record of 22 held by co-head coach Ryan Millar.

ALL OVER THE PLACE

In BYU's three-set sweep over UC Santa Barbara Mar. 10, the Cougars swung at a .495 mark for the day. Four of BYU's starting five attackers swung at a .500 mark or better. Yosleyder Cala, BYU's team leader in hitting percentage was the only not to hit at least .500 and he hit over .300.