No. 7 BYU sweeps UCSD in McGown's 100th match

PROVO, Utah – No. 7 BYU men’s volleyball picked up their second sweep of the weekend over UC San Diego (25-18, 25-20, 25-21) Saturday night at the Smith Fieldhouse.

"We got what we wanted this weekend which was a lot of guys in the match," BYU head coach Chris McGown said. "It's a little bit of a tough thing when we're throwing this many different lineups at our own guys. A different setter every set, different middles and different outsides. It's hard to keep in the flow of the match I think to some degree, but it's a lot like our practice so it shouldn't be a terribly foreign concept for us."

The match marked McGown's 100th leading the team and his 77th victory. BYU (6-2, 5-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) improved its overall record against UCSD (1-8, 0-6 MPSF) to 38-0 and stretched its home-winning streak to 30.

Price Jarman led the way for the Cougar defense recording a career-high six blocks while Matt Underwood had five and Jake Langlois had four. Carson Heninger finished with a team-high six kills, followed by Michael Hatch and Phil Fuchs with five apiece. Tyler Heap and Leo Durkin led the way in the assist category with 18 and 13, respectively. Durkin also had a team-high eight digs in the win.

BYU got on the board first to start the match. Hatch stuffed an attempted UCSD kill to put the Cougars up 1-0. After a Triton kill to tie it up, BYU rallied off four-straight points to go up 5-1, forcing a UCSD timeout.

Monster kills from Hatch and Langlois stretched BYU’s lead to 14-8. After the Tritons responded with a point of their own, Underwood answered with a kill to make it 15-10, Cougars.

BYU was able to keep UC San Diego at arm’s length for the rest of the first set, winning 25-18 on a hitting error by the Tritons.

After trading points with UCSD and leading 7-6 in the second set, the Cougars used a 4-0 run, fueled by two kills from Jarman, to take an 11-6 cushion.  

After a timeout, UC San Diego responded with two kills of its own, but BYU came right back and stretched its lead to 16-10. UCSD couldn’t get within four points the rest of the way and the Cougars coasted in set two, 25-20.

Heninger put BYU up 1-0 to start the third set after his kill bounced off a UCSD player and landed in the stands. Shayne Beamer hammered the ball down the middle of the Cougar defense to give UC San Diego a 10-7 lead.

After three BYU service errors and an ace from Kirill Rudenko, McGown was forced to call timeout with his team trailing 16-12. Sparked by a Fuchs kill, the Cougars rallied out of the timeout to go on a 6-0 run to take a 21-19 lead. BYU finished set three on a 10-2 run to win 25-21 and sweep the Tritons.

The Cougars will be back at the Smith Fieldhouse Friday at 7 p.m. MST for the first of a pair of matchups against Cal Baptist. The match will be broadcast live on BYUtv and simulcast on BYU Radio. Links to live stats and a video feed can be found on the BYU men's volleyball schedule page.