BYU takes on Pepperdine in MPSF semifinals

MALIBU, Calif. — BYU men’s volleyball travels to Malibu to play in the MPSF semifinals as a five seed against one-seed, and regular season champion, Pepperdine on Thursday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

MPSF Semifinals Notes

Five-seed BYU (13-11, 6-6 MPSF)

• The Cougars took down four-seed Stanford in five sets in Palo Alto last week, thanks to a career-high 14 kills from Felipe de Brito Ferreira, 13 digs from Andrew Lincoln and five blocks from Brody Earnest.

• This is BYU’s fourth consecutive trip to the MPSF semifinals, after winning the tournament last year. If the Cougars beat Pepperdine they advance to the championship on Saturday, Apr. 20 against the winner of the USC-UCLA match on Thursday evening. The winner of the championship match receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

• Four Cougars were honored with MPSF awards last week, highlighted by Davide Gardini winning Freshman of the Year. He was also named to the All-MPSF Second Team and the All-Freshman Team. Gabi Garcia Fernandez was named to the All-MPSF First Team, Felipe de Brito Ferreira received honorable mention and Brody Earnest was named to the All-Freshman Team.

One-seed Pepperdine (20-6, 9-3 MPSF)

• The Waves enter Thursday’s match on a five-match win streak, during which they have lost just one set. They earned a first-round bye and will play their first match of the tournament against the Cougars.

• Pepperdine lost to USC in the quarterfinals of the MPSF tournament last year, but were able to come back and earn the one seed this year. BYU and Pepperdine split the season series this year, with each team winning on its home court.

• Pepperdine outside hitter David Wieczorek was named MPSF Player of the Year last week, with Michael Wexter and Kaleb Denmark being named to the first and second All-MPSF teams, respectively.

The match begins at 5 p.m. PDT and links for streaming and stats can be found on the schedule page.