MPSF Champions Head to NCAA Tournament

MALIBU -- The BYU men's volleyball team overcame a 2-0 deficit to knock off No. 1 Pepperdine 25-30, 31-33, 30-28, 32-30, 15-7 for the MPSF Tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAA National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championship next week in Long Beach.

In what seemed almost like a repeat of the teams' first matchup two weeks ago, the Waves took a 2-0 lead in the match but the Cougars weren't scared off and came back for the win. The Cougars out-hit the Waves .320 to .268, recording 87 kills on the match to Pepperdine's 70. Pepperdine still out-blocked BYU 18.0 to 14.5, but BYU had the edge on digs, tying its single-match dig record with 50 on the night.

"You never want to be down like that," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "But it was a fabulous comeback. I sure liked what we did tonight. We changed some things around and changed the momentum, and that made the difference."

Jonathan Alleman recorded his second double-double of the tournament, registering 22 kills and a match-high 10 digs. Jaime Mayol and Chris Gorny recorded season-highs with 23 kills and 15 kills, respectively. Michael Burke added 15 kills and five blocks, and Carlos Moreno guided the offense with his season-best 79 assists.

Four Waves hit in double figures, led by Fred Winters with 16 kills and Sean Rooney and Brad Keenan with 16 each.

BYU started off with a lead through half of the first game but committed several errors that let Pepperdine take the lead. The Cougars committed six service errors in the first game and were penalized with net calls and an out-of-rotation error.

Pepperdine took a three-point run from a 14-point tie for the lead and never relinquished, hitting .458 with 14 kills on 24 attempts, while BYU hit .433 as a team. Alleman knocked down 7 kills with a .875 attack percent for the Cougars, but BYU still lost the first game 25-30.

The Waves got an early lead in game two, leading by as much as 7 points before the Cougars got back in the game. Luka Slabe came in to an ace to bring the Cougars within one at 16-17, then Chris Gorny spiked a ball and followed it with an ace for the Cougar lead, 20-19.

BYU kept its lead all the way to 29-27, but three Cougar errors gave Pepperdine a one-point lead. Mayol followed with his 11th kill, followed by a Keenan kill then a block from Burke and Slabe. Fred Winters hit a ball off the hands of Slabe and Gorny for a 32-31 lead, then sealed the win for the Waves 33-31 with a service ace.

In game three the Cougars seemed to have more momentum as they hit .400 to the Waves' .297. BYU started early with a three-point lead at 4-1 and gained a lead as large as seven points at 21-14. BYU kept a comfortable lead up to 28 points with the Waves trailing by five.

Mike Gledhill knocked down a kill and started a three-point attempted comeback for the Waves, and after a 2-1 Pepperdine run the Cougars were at game point but only ahead by one. With Pepperdine serving, BYU took the ball, Moreno set it up and Alleman slammed it down to win the game, 30-28.

Pepperdine scored first in game four but BYU quickly took the lead on a Mayol kill and held it to 16. The Waves scored three to take the lead, but the Cougars didn't give up. Behind 27-29, Burke hit a quick set from Moreno to score and the Cougars scored the next point to tie it up.

BYU started off game five with a 3-0 lead and quickly jumped to 11-4 with Burke and Slabe leading the attack. Pepperdine only scored three more points in the game and hit -.100 while the Cougars attacked at .545. Burke slammed down the final kill for BYU to win the game 15-7 and make the Cougars the MPSF Tournament champions.

The first round will be held Thursday, May 1 at 6 and 8 p.m. in Long Beach, followed by the championship round Saturday, May 3 at 4 p.m.

The first semifinal match is scheduled to be televised on a delayed basis on ESPN2 next Friday (May 2) beginning at 8 a.m. (PDT) with the second semifinal match to follow at 11 a.m.

The championship match will be aired live nationally on ESPN2.

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                              Volleyball Box Score
                        2003 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
     Brigham Young vs No. 1 Pepperdine (Apr 26, 2003 at Malibu, California)
    Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  PATTERSON, Casey....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 3  BURKE, Michael......  5| 15   3  25  .480|  0|  0   0|  0|  4| 2  6  2|  0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  5|  2   1   4  .250| 79|  2   3|  0|  7| 0  2  0|  0
 6  GORNY, Chris........  5| 15   4  23  .478|  0|  1   4|  0|  2| 2  3  0|  0
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  5| 23  10  42  .310|  0|  1   0|  3|  8| 0  1  2|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  2|  3   5  13 -.154|  1|  0   1|  2|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  5| 22   4  39  .462|  1|  0   3|  0| 10| 0  3  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  5|  7   6  23  .043|  0|  2   3|  0|  6| 1  4  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 87  33 169  .320| 83|  7  15|  6| 50| 5 19  4|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  6  30  .433   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  19 10  48  .188   Brigham Young....... 25 31 30 32 15  22-6
   3  20  6  35  .400   No. 1 Pepperdine.... 30 33 28 30  7  24-5
   4  21  9  45  .267
   5   8  2  11  .545
    No. 1 Pepperdine       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  HEIN, Andy..........  5|  8   1  13  .538|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 2  4  1|  0
 4  GLEDHILL, Mike......  5| 11   4  19  .368|  3|  1   1|  0|  8| 2  5  0|  0
 6  KEENAN, Brad........  5| 16   8  32  .250|  5|  3   6|  0|  0| 0  8  0|  0
 7  WINTERS, Fred.......  5| 17   5  43  .279|  0|  1   1|  4|  7| 2  0  0|  0
 9  KA, James...........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 11 MAYER, John.........  5|  2   1   4  .250| 55|  0   0|  0| 10| 0  4  1|  0
 12 ROONEY, Sean........  5| 16   9  46  .152|  1|  1   1|  0|  7| 0  3  0|  0
 14 COATS, Dhiraj.......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  8| 0  0  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 70  28 157  .268| 65|  6   9|  7| 41| 6 24  2|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 18.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  3  24  .458   Site: Malibu, California (Firestone Fieldhouse)
   2  20  7  47  .277   Date: Apr 26, 2003   Attend: 1678   Time: 2:40
   3  17  6  37  .297   Referees: Marvin Hall, Rick Olmstead
   4  16  8  39  .205
   5   3  4  10 -.100