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PROVO -- The No. 9 BYU men’s volleyball team opened Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play with a 3-1 win against No. 11 Hawai’i on Thursday night. With the win the Cougars improve to an even 3-3 on the season and 1-0 against MPSF opponents.

“We’ve played enough and practiced enough—this is when it counts,” said BYU head coach Shawn Patchell. “Hawai'i is a really good team and this is a great win for our program. We have a young team, but we’ve turned the corner of what it means to finish matches.”

Three Cougars recorded double-digit kills, including 22 from Mat Taylor, 21 from Kevin Sagers and 19 from Andrew Stewart. Thursday marked back-to-back matches in which Taylor and Sagers set new career highs in that category. Setter Yamil Perez also set a new career high with 62 assists.

The Warriors jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the first set, causing BYU to call an early timeout. Coming out of the break the Cougars went on a 4-1 run to close the gap. Stewart and Sagers contributed kills during the run that eventually gave BYU its first lead at 9-8. Taylor’s kill and ace during the following plays put the Cougars up by five, while Futi Tavana secured the 30-23 win with a kill on set-point.

Stewart, Sagers and Taylor recorded three consecutive kills early in the second set to put BYU up 4-2. Two service aces from Perez helped spur a 6-1 run for the Cougars, but two separate 4-0 runs by the Warriors kept Hawai’i close. Freshman Russell Lavaja sealed the win for BYU with his second service ace of the night.

“We played aggressive tonight and distributed the ball well,” said Patchell. “Not only did we get great play out of our starters, but the guys coming off the bench had energy as well.”

Both teams kept the score close throughout the third set, as Hawai’i pulled away to 24-18 before a kill by Sagers. Service and attack errors by BYU gave the Warriors enough momentum to snag the 30-25 win.

The fourth set began much like the third, with both teams trading points back-and-forth. Hawai'i’s Joshua Walker knocked down three kills halfway through the set, closing in on BYU’s 19-15 lead. Taylor dominated offensively, recording three consecutive kills, capped with a service ace to give the Cougars a five-point advantage. Sagers blocked an attack by Walker to set up match point, and sealed the overall win for BYU with a kill (30-22).

The Cougars will face Hawai’i again on Friday night in the Smith Fieldhouse at 7 p.m. MT.

Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young Univ. Cougar VolleyBall
               HAWAII vs BYU Cougars (Jan 22, 2009 at PROVO, UT)
   HAWAII                 |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1  Rawson, Matt........  4|  8   1  14  .500|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  3  2|  0
2  Grgas, Steven.......  4|  9   0  12  .750|  0|  0   3|  0|  4| 0  2  3|  0
5  Hunt, Steven........  4| 19   4  34  .441|  0|  0   4|  3|  6| 0  1  0|  0
6  Carney, Sean........  4|  2   1   6  .167| 57|  0   3|  0|  8| 1  0  0|  0
8  Tuaniga, Gus........  3|  8   2  16  .375|  1|  0   0|  1|  1| 0  1  1|  0
20 Dyer, Brennon.......  2|  4   1  13  .231|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
3  Clar, Jim...........  2|  3   1   6  .333|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
7  Walker, Joshua......  3|  9   7  24  .083|  1|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0
9  Cervantes, Ric......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  4|  5| 0  0  0|  0
15 Zemljak, Nejc.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
18 China, Michael......  3|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   1|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 63  17 126  .365| 59|  0  15|  8| 32| 1 10  6|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  9  39  .179   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  12  5  24  .292   HAWAII.............. (1) 23 23 30 22  1-5, 0-3 MPSF
   3  17  1  33  .485   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 30 25 30  3-3, 1-0 MPSF
   4  18  2  30  .533
   BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9  SOUZA, Otavio.......  2|  2   2   9  .000|  1|  0   1|  0|  0| 1  2  0|  0
10 TAYLOR, Mat.........  4| 22   4  37  .486|  0|  2   2|  0|  6| 0  2  3|  0
11 SAGERS, Kevin.......  4| 21   1  32  .625|  1|  0   4|  0|  9| 0  2  1|  0
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  4|  1   0   2  .500| 62|  3   6|  0|  9| 1  0  2|  0
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  4| 19   5  32  .438|  1|  1   0|  0|  5| 0  2  0|  0
17 TAVANA, Futi........  4|  9   4  17  .294|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  3  1|  0
1  TUTTLE, Kent........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
3  CHILTON, Reed.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
4  SILVA, Joel.........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  4|  0   0|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  1
5  LAVAJA, Russell.....  2|  0   2   2-1.000|  0|  2   3|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0
8  KAULIAKAMOA, Joe....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 74  18 131  .427| 69|  8  16|  0| 38| 2 12  7|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  3  34  .412   Site: PROVO, UT (SMITH FIELDHOUSE)
   2  17  5  30  .400   Date: Jan 22, 2009   Attend: 1778   Time: 2H 16M
   3  19  9  37  .270   Referees: LES CALLES, TOM GIVEN, TRENT MANO
   4  21  1  30  .667

After spliting their two matches last weekend against Cal Baptist and Lewis, the No. 9 Cougars remain at home to host Mountain Pacific Sports Federation foe No. 11 Hawai’i on Thursday and Friday. BYU opens MPSF play against the Warriors, while Hawaii is coming off back-to-back losses to No. 3 Pepperdine last week.

Series Information

The Cougars have been consistently successful against the Warriors at home, winning five of the last six meetings in the Smith Fieldhouse, including four straight. BYU holds a 25-14 all-time advantage over Hawai’i, most recently winning both matches played at the Stan Sheriff Center in 2008.

Hawai’i won five fo the first seven matches played between the two teams. Since then, the Cougars have ruled the series. Since its victory on Feb. 1, 1997, BYU has posted a 19-6 record against the Warriors, including two separate streaks of five and six consecutive wins.

Match Coverage

Both matches will be televised live on BYU-TV with Jarom Jordan calling play-by-play and Steve Vail offering analysis.

Every home match will have a free live stats feed option. The live stats feed can be accessed by visiting the men’s volleyball schedule page at www.byucougars.com. The live stats can be launched by clicking on the “Live Stats” link for the appropriate game.