Five Cougars earn All-MPSF awards

PROVO, Utah—Five BYU men's volleyball players received Mountain Pacific Sports Federation honors Thursday, with Michael Hatch, Jake Langlois, Matt Underwood, Phil Fuchs and Brenden Sander receiving awards.

Junior middle blocker Hatch, who is second on the Cougars in blocking with 1.29 per set, was named All-MPSF Second Team and collects his second conference honor after being named All-MPSF Honorable Mention a year ago. Hatch currently has the team's highest hitting percentage at a .443 clip. Additionally, he is just one of two Cougars to have started in every match so far this season. Hatch hails from Agoura HIlls, California.

Sophomore outside hitter Langlois picks up his first career conference honor, being named to the All-MPSF Second Team. The 6-foot-10 San Jose, California, native leads the team in kills (239) and kills per set (3.27) while adding 1.62 digs and 1.00 blocks per set. Langlois has amassed double-digit kill totals in 11 matches to date, including a double-double (14 kills and 13 digs) against UCLA earlier in the season.

Junior opposite Underwood also collects his first conference honor after being named to the All-MPSF Second Team. Underwood has started in 16 matches so far this season, collecting the second-highest kill total (194) on the team as well as averaging 0.99 digs and 0.77 blocks per set. He has added double-digit kills in 10 matches so far this season.

Fuchs, a senior from Lindon, Utah, was named to the All-MPSF Honorable Mention team, picking up his first career conference honor as well. Fuchs started in nine conference matches this year and matched a career-high 22 kills on two separate nights. He averages 2.73 kills per set on a .306 clip in addition to 1.25 digs per set.

Freshman Sander, hailing from Huntington Beach, California, was named to the All-MPSF Freshman Team. During the regular season, Sander averaged 2.21 kills per set while hitting at .272. He was additionally named AVCA and MPSF Player of the Week earlier this week for his part in upsetting No. 1 Hawai'i twice in the regular-season conference finale.

BYU ended the regular season with a fifth-place conference finish. The Cougars look to win the MPSF tournament for a third-straight year, beginning with a trip to No. 4 seed USC Saturday at 7 p.m. PDT for a quarterfinals match.