No. 1 BYU ends regular season on the road

No. 1 BYU (20-4, 19-3 MPSF)
Pacific (8-18, 5-17 MPSF)
No. 8 Stanford (14-11, 11-11 MPSF)

PROVO, Utah – The No. 1 BYU men’s volleyball teams wraps up its regular season on the road with matches against Pacific Friday and No. 8 Stanford Saturday, both at 7 p.m. PDT.

The Cougars are ranked No. 1 in the AVCA national poll for sixth-straight week, the longest streak since 2008 when the Cougars held the top spot for seven weeks.

With a win at UC Santa Barbara last Friday, BYU secured the MPSF regular-season title, its first title since 2004. The Cougars are also the No. 1 seed in the MPSF tournament, beginning with the quarterfinal round April 20 in Provo.

Taylor Sander had an 18-kill, 11-dig double-double in the comeback win at UCSB. The Cougars were down 13-11 in set five before taking the final four points. Sander also served three aces and had five blocks. Ben Patch added 19 kills and eight digs.

The victory extended the Cougars’ win streak to 12 matches, tying for the fourth longest in the rally-scoring era at BYU. The streak was ended the next night at UCLA in a 3-0 loss.

BYU is No. 1 in the MPSF in hitting percentage (.330), opponent hitting percentage (.240) and blocks (2.93).

Michael Hatch is tied for the best blocks average in the MPSF with 1.41 and Russ Lavaja is No. 3 in hitting percentage with a .439 attack. Sander holds the third-best points average in the conference with 4.76 and is fourth in kills with a 4.01 average

Pacific

Pacific is coming off a five-set win at UC San Diego last Friday where Adam Troy (17 kills/10 digs) and Taylor Hughes (16 kills/14 digs) earned double-doubles. The Tigers dropped the next match to UC Irvine 3-0.

The Tigers are fifth in the MPSF in blocks with 2.60 per set. Javier Caceres has the best digs average in the conference with 2.73.

The Cougars are 30-5 all-time against the Tigers and swept Pacific in the teams’ last meeting Feb. 22.

Stanford

Stanford is coming off a straight-set win at UC San Diego. Eric Mochalski hit .533 (10-2-15) in the win.

The Cardinal holds the third-best digs average in the MPSF with 9.26 and is fifth in opponent hitting percentage with a .257 clip.

Brian Cook is third in the conference in kills with 4.13 per set and is fifth in points with a 4.73 average.

BYU owns the overall series record against Stanford 26-15. The Cougars edged out the Cardinal in their Feb. 23 meeting.

Stanford takes on Cal Baptist Friday before welcoming BYU Saturday.

Video, audio and live stats will be available for the match at Pacific, and live stats and video will be available for the match against Stanford. You can also follow the team on Twitter @BYUvolleyball.