PROVO -- One night after the No. 5 BYU men’s volleyball team posted a 3-1 win over No. 3 Stanford, the Cardinal returned the favor, handing the Cougars a 20-30, 35-33, 30-28, 30-27 defeat Saturday night. With the loss the Cougars fall to 5-2 on the season and 3-1 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play.

“We lacked the grit we showed Friday night,” said BYU head coach Shawn Patchell. “We lacked that killer instinct and didn’t make the plays we should be able to make here in the Smith Fieldhouse where we practice everyday. It’s still early. We’ll learn from tonight.”

BYU was led by sophomore Robb Stowell, who tied his career high of 22 kills. Three other Cougars recorded double-digit kills, including Andrew Stewart with 18, Futi Tavana with 16 and Russell Lavaja with 15. Tavana and Lavaja both earned new career highs. Reed Chilton set a career-high 69 assists.

Stewart opened the night with nine kills in the first set, including three straight to give BYU a 13-11 lead. The Cardinal suffered several attack errors, which contributed to a 4-0 Cougar run capped by a joint block from Stowell and Lavaja. Tavana and Stewart led the Cougars as they out-blocked Stanford 4.5 to two, while also holding it to a .077 attack percentage.

In a second set that saw 14 tied scores, the Cougars managed to come back from a late five-point deficit, giving themselves four set-point chances before the Cardinal pulled out the 35-33 win. Down 27-22, kills from Tavana and Stewart sparked a 7-1 BYU run capped by a solo block by Lavaja to bring up the first set-point. Stanford took advantage of several Cougar serves into the net as it tied the match at one-set-all.

“It was disappointing to see that happen,” said Patchell. “I thought we played tentatively from the service line. You want to be aggressive but you can’t make service errors.”

Both teams struggled to find any momentum to start the third set, but the Cardinal capitalized on BYU attack errors to jump out to an 18-15 lead. Stowell knocked down back-to-back kills to bring his team to within one point, but Stanford maintained its lead. Two big Cougars blocks knotted the score 25-25, and while Stowell hit two more kills, the Cardinal claimed the set, 30-28.

Stanford’s momentum carried over to begin the final set. The Cougars took a 19-16 advantage after kills from Stowell, Tavana and Jeff Robinson, but the Cardinal went on a 7-1 run to retake the lead for good. Service errors once again hindered BYU as Stanford clinched the match, 30-27.

Up next the Cougars hit the road for a two match series with UCLA on Feb. 4 and 5. BYU’s next home matches will be against Pepperdine on March 5 and 6.

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
                #3 STAN vs #5 BYU (Jan 23, 2010 at Provo, Utah)
   STAN                   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3  Gus Ellis...........  4| 12   2  26  .385|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 1  8  0|  0
5  Evan Romero.........  4| 11  10  37  .027|  0|  0   1|  0|  5| 0  5  1|  0
7  Spencer McLachlin...  2|  4   2  13  .154|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
9  Brad Lawson.........  4| 22   4  41  .439|  0|  1   3|  1|  5| 0  4  0|  0
12 Kawika Shoji........  4|  3   2   9  .111| 60|  0   0|  0|  8| 3  1  0|  0
14 Garrett Werner......  4|  9   0  13  .692|  1|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  3  0|  0
1  Erik Shoji..........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  4|  0   0|  0| 13| 0  0  0|  0
6  Jordan Inafuku......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
8  Garrett Dobbs.......  4|  7   5  17  .118|  0|  0   3|  0|  6| 0  1  1|  0
11 Myles Muagututia....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
13 Jason Palacios......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 68  25 156  .276| 67|  2  10|  1| 43| 4 22  2|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.0
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  8  39  .077   SET SCORES                1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  22  9  46  .283   STAN................ (3) 20 35 30 30  3-1, 3-1 MPSF
   3  20  4  38  .421   BYU................. (1) 30 33 28 27  5-2, 3-1 MPSF
   4  15  4  33  .333
   BYU                    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3  CHILTON, Reed.......  4|  1   0   4  .250| 69|  0   0|  0|  7| 0  2  0|  0
5  LAVAJA, Russell.....  4| 15   2  23  .565|  0|  0   4|  0|  2| 2  4  0|  1
7  ROBINSON, Jeff......  4|  5   3  15  .133|  1|  0   2|  0|  8| 0  3  0|  0
13 STOWELL, Robb.......  4| 22   6  35  .457|  0|  1   1|  0|  5| 1  1  2|  0
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  4| 18  10  40  .200|  1|  0   5|  1|  3| 1  3  0|  0
17 TAVANA, Futi........  4| 16   5  30  .367|  3|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  5  0|  0
1  TUTTLE, Kent........  1|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
4  SILVA, Joel.........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0| 17| 0  0  0|  0
8  KAULIAKAMOA, Joe....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
11 SAGERS, Kevin.......  3|  5   3  14  .143|  0|  0   2|  1|  1| 0  0  0|  0
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
18 HIAPO, BJ...........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 82  29 162  .327| 77|  1  15|  2| 49| 4 19  2|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.5
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  2  33  .545   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  21  9  43  .279   Date: Jan 23, 2010   Attend: 3829   Time: 2h 25m
   3  21  8  47  .277   Referees: Mike Farrish, Les Calles, Trent Mano
   4  20 10  39  .256

Match Outlook

It’s a clash between two top-five teams this week as No. 5 BYU (4-1, 2-0 MPSF) hosts No. 3 Stanford (2-0, 2-0 MPSF) at the Smith Fieldhouse for a two-match series on Friday and Saturday nights. Both undefeated in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play, the Cardinal and Cougars share the lead in the loss column, along with USC and Cal State Northridge with three wins apiece.

The Cardinal opened the 2010 season 2-0 after back-to-back sweeps of No. 8 Hawai’i last weekend. Evan Romero, Spencer McLachlin, and Brad Lawson recorded a combined 38 kills as the Cardinal hit a strong .413 as a team against the Warriors (2-3, 0-2).

Series Info

BYU holds a 23-12 lead in the series between these two teams dating back to March 2, 1990. The Cougars hold a 10-4 record against the Cardinal in Provo, with their most recent victory coming in 2008. BYU has won nine of the past 13 matches and swept Stanford in six of those. Two of those matches went to four games, while BYU and Stanford each won a five-set match last season.

Match Coverage

Both matches will be broadcast live on BYU-TV. Fans may watch a live stream at www.byu.tv.

Live stats are available at the BYU men’s volleyball schedule page at www.byucougars.com. Gametracker can be launched by clicking on the “Live Stats” link for the appropriate game on the schedule.

Coming Off...

The Cougars are coming off back-to-back sweeps over Pacific last week to open the MPSF season 2-0. The 4,024 fans in attendance for the home opener on Friday marked the largest home crowd since the Cougars played then-No. 2 UC Irvine in front of 5,603 fans in 2007. Outside hitters Andrew Stewart and Kevin Sagers led BYU with nine kills apiece on Friday, while the team tied a season-high 18 blocks. Saturday Robb Stowell and Stewart led the Cougars with 13 and 10 kills, respectively, on way to a 30-21, 30-26, 30-23 win.