PROVO, Utah – The No. 1 BYU men’s volleyball team fell 3-0 (33-35, 23-25, 22-25) to the No. 7 Stanford Cardinal Saturday at the Smith Fieldhouse, marking the first time the team has been swept in a match this season.

"That's a really good Stanford team out there," said BYU head coach Chris McGown. "They were playing with a lot of confidence tonight. One thing, for us, is that we're trying to support whoever is on the court one hundred percent, and I think the guys have been great about that."

Futi Tavana led the Cougars with 11 kills while Robb Stowell finished with 10. Joe Kauliakoma assisted on 41 points and Andrew Heap led with six digs.

The loss also marks the first time the Cougars have lost two home matches in the same weekend since 2002 when Pepperdine twice defeated BYU. Its also only the fourth time BYU has fallen 3-0 in the past 73 home matches dating back to 2006.

BYU jumped out to an early 9-5 lead in the first set before Stanford rallied back to take a three-point lead at 22-19. Behind strong play from Tavana, who had six kills in the set, BYU came back to tie it at 22-22. The teams battled well beyond the 25-point mark before the Cardinal eventually took the set 35-33.

"It was a great first set tonight," McGown said. "It was fun for our guys to be in it like that. I thought we battled hard but it just didn't go our way."

Set two was another back and forth battle. The teams were tied 18 times and neither team was ever ahead by more than two. BYU took a late 21-20 lead before Stanford ended the game on a 5-2 run to win 25-23.

Stanford came out hard in the third set and built a quick 5-1 lead. The Cougars fought back to tie the score at 8-all and then again at 18-18. Following the tie, the Cardinal scored four straight to make it 22-18. BYU was unable to overcome the deficit and lost the final set 25-22.

"I thought we were better tonight," McGown said. "The biggest thing I'm going to take away is that we've got Futi (Tavana) back in the lineup and he hasn't been there for a while. He's still figuring things out but is definitely improving. Our primary passers are two freshman and a sophomore so we're young but I thought they played well tonight and with a lot of maturity."

The Cougars will travel to California to continue their season when they take on UC San Diego. The first match will be on Thursday, February 9, at 7:00 p.m. PST and the second match will take place Saturday, February 11, at 1:00 p.m.

Quick Look
No. 1 BYU: 6-1, 4-0 MPSF
No. 7 Stanford: 5-2, 2-1 MPSF

The No. 1 BYU men's volleyball team kicks off its February action with a pair of matches against No. 7 Stanford in the Smith Fieldhouse this Friday & Saturday, Feb. 3 and 4, at 7 p.m. MT. BYU leads the overall series 25-13 and has a 13-4 advantage all-time when playing at home. 

BYU received a No. 1 ranking from both the AVCA and Volleyball Magazine this week for the third consecutive time. 

The Cougars return to action after almost two weeks off. In their last outing, they defeated then No. 5 USC at home in consecutive nights. Taylor Sander currently leads the team with 142 kills and is accompanied on the stat sheet by Robb Stowell, Josue Rivera, Russ Lavaja, Quentin Smith and Andrew Heap who are also recording double-figure kills.

Russ Lavaja’s 42 blocks lead the team and, again, five other players join him in recording double-digit blocks for the season. BYU is outblocking its opponents this season 80.5 to 39.5 so far this year.

The Cardinal is coming off a win and loss at the Ken & Dave Dunlap Invitational in Columbus, Ohio, where they fell to Penn State and, most recently, defeated Ohio State on the road. Stanford is 5-2 on the season and 2-1 in conference action. They are led by Brad Lawson’s 81 kills and six other players with double-figure kills so far this season. Evan Barry has tallied 279 assists and Eric Mochalski leads the team with 15 total blocks.

BYUtv will be broadcasting Friday’s match live and online at this link with play-by-play from Jarom Jordan and color commentary from Steve Vail. Saturday’s match will be available through live stats only. Live stats are available for both matches through the BYU men’s volleyball schedule page. Gametracker is launched by clicking on the “Live Stats” link for the appropriate game on the schedule.

Fans call also follow the team on Twitter for live updates.