PROVO -- A week after losing its first match of the season, the BYU men's volleyball team rebounded on Friday, dropping Pacific in three straight games, 30-21, 30-23, 31-29. With the victory, the third-ranked Cougars improve to 13-1 on the season, including a record of 8-1 in MPSF play. The match marked the third 3-0 victory for the Cougars this season, including the second in Provo.

"You can't look at a team's record," BYU head coach Shawn Patchell said. "Pacific made some nice plays and took us out of our system. We made a few adjustments and started spreading the ball around a little more. I like the way we finished."

Senior Ivan Perez led the Cougars with 14 kills on the night and added five blocks. Senior Russell Holmes added nine kills, but paced the BYU defense with a match-high seven blocks. Trent Sorensen talled six blocks and Jonathan Charette was credited with five blocks. All totaled, the Cougars out-blocked the Tigers 15.5 to 4.

In the first game of the match, BYU jumped out to a 14-11 lead on a Perez Kill, then went on a 4-1 run to take an 18-12 advantage. After UOP cut the lead to 20-15, the Cougars went on a five-point run behind a pair of blocks from Holmes. Charette iced the game on back-to-back kills to give BYU a 30-21 victory. Perez fueled the Cougars in game one, recording four kills and three blocks.

In the second game of the match, the Tigers held a 16-12 lead before the Cougars racked up six straight points to take an 18-16 lead. Pacific's Jeff Hendershot ended the BYU run with a kill, but it was short lived as the Cougars went on another scoring streak, going on a 6-1 run to take a 24-18 lead. Coming off the bench, freshman Kent Tuttle scored two of the Cougars' final three point to complete the 30-23, come-from-behind victory.

The two teams battled through a 27-27 tie before the Cougars got the break they were looking for. A UOP attack error gave BYU a 28-27 lead and the advantage; however, a Brian Congelliere service error equaled the score at 28-28 and gave the advantage back to Pacific. The Tigers then took the lead after Perez missed a hard shot. Looking to take game three, the Tigers committed a seventh service error of the night, notching the score at 29-29. On the next play Sorensen and Charette dominated the net to give BYU a one-point advantage. Charette sealed the victory with block on the final play.

BYU and Pacific will square off again on Saturday at the Smith Fieldhouse. The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. (MT).

Volleyball Box Score
                             BYU  Cougar VolleyBall
    Pacific Tigers vs #3 Brigham Young (Feb 29, 2008 at BYU PROVO, UT 84602)
   Pacific Tigers         |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1  Borchin, Jason......  3| 13   4  26  .346|  1|  1   4|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|  14.0
4  Gentry, Blake.......  3|  4   3  13  .077|  0|  0   4|  0|  1| 1  1  0|  0|   5.5
10 Staks, Kris.........  3|  0   4   4-1.000| 41|  0   2|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
11 Ostrander, Clay.....  3|  2   2   8  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
13 Seppanen, Pekka.....  3| 12   7  24  .208|  0|  0   4|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  0|  12.5
14 Chen-Byerley, Simon.  3|  8   1  13  .538|  1|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0|   9.0
3  Forbes, Joe.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
8  Bauhs, Mark.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  4|  0   0|  2| 11| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
15 Hendershot, Jeff....  3| 10   2  20  .400|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0|  11.0
16 D'Egidio, Tyler.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
22 Burridge, Justin....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  3| 49  23 108  .241| 48|  1  15|  2| 30| 1  6  0|  0|  54.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                                           TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 4.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct Sideout Pct
   1  13  9  31  .129  17-30  56%   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15  6  37  .243  14-29  48%   Pacific Tigers...... (0) 21 23 29  1-15; 1-12; MPSF
   3  21  8  40  .325  22-31  70%   Brigham Young....... (3) 30 30 31  13-1; 8-1 ; MPSF
   Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  3|  1   0   2  .500| 36|  1   1|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0|   3.0
7  SORENSEN, Trent.....  3|  5   1  12  .333|  0|  0   3|  0|  1| 1  5  1|  0|   8.5
8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3| 14   4  28  .357|  0|  1   4|  0|  4| 0  5  0|  0|  17.5
11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  9   1  13  .615|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 1  6  0|  0|  13.0
13 CHARETTE, Jonathan..  3|  8   3  20  .250|  1|  0   1|  0|  5| 1  4  1|  0|  11.0
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  3|  9   0  13  .692|  0|  0   0|  1|  4| 1  1  0|  0|  10.5
1  TUTTLE, Kent........  3|  3   0   4  .750|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
6  SILVA, Joel.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
10 TAYLOR, Mat.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  6|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
16 JUSTEN, Leandro.....  1|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
17 VALENCIA, Nick......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  3| 49   9  93  .430| 45|  2  13|  1| 24| 4 23  2|  0|  66.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                                           TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct Sideout Pct
   1  14  1  24  .542  17-21  80%   Site: BYU PROVO, UT 84602 (SMITH FIELDHOUSE)
   2  18  3  34  .441  15-24  62%   Date: Feb 29, 2008   Attend: 1882   Time: 1H 41M
   3  17  5  35  .343  22-29  75%   Referees: MAILE JEWKES, TOM GIVEN
                                         1   2   3 Total
                        Tie scores       6   4  20    30
                        Lead changes     2   2   5     9

PROVO -- The No. 3 BYU men's volleyball team (12-1, 7-1) is set to host the Pacific Tigers (1-14, 1-11) Friday and Saturday in the Smith Fieldhouse coming off the Cougars' lone loss of the season.

The Cougars have never lost to the Tigers in Provo. BYU has won the last four meetings and eight of the last nine. Three of the five wins Pacific has over BYU have come in five sets, while 11 of the Cougars' wins have been sweeps.

The Tigers' lone win this season was a sweep against Stanford at The Farm on January 31. Since then they have lost their last six matches. Senior Pekka Seppanen leads the Pacific offense with 207 kills on the season with 495 total swings. Senior Blake Gentry anchors the Tiger block, averaging 1.05 a game.

BYU finished its 2007 regular season with an 11-1 (.917) record at the Smith Fieldhouse. The record was the fifth best mark in Cougar history behind the 1998 (11-0, 1.000), 2004 (16-1, .941), 1999 (15-1, .938), and 2006 (13-1, .929) seasons. BYU started 2007 with five consecutive home wins before losing to No. 2 UC Irvine when the two teams split two matches in Provo. The Cougars then ran off six straight wins to finish the season. The team is 5-1 at home this season after facing off against the No. 1 NAIA team Cal Baptist, No. 6 Cal State Northridge, and No. 9 Stanford.

For more information on the match up, please see the attached PDF.