Cougars Face National Champs

PROVO -- The No. 1 BYU men's volleyball team (9-0, 4-0) will play in Irvine, Calif., Friday and Saturday against the defending national champion UC Irvine Anteaters (8-6, 5-4) in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest.

The Cougars are one of three unbeaten teams in Division 1 volleyball and one of two in the MPSF. They are 5-0 on the road this season and are anxious to get back to action after having no matches last week.

The Cougars lead the series against the Anteaters 29-9 and 13-5 in Irvine. The Cougars are also 12-3 against the Anteaters since 2001, but only 1-4 against them since the end of the 2005 season. BYU swept UCI in three games in Provo in 2007, but lost in five games the following night. The two teams met again in the second round of the MPSF Tournament when the Anteaters got the better end of another five-game encounter. UCI then went on to win the conference title and the NCAA Championship.

For more information on the contest and BYU, see the attached PDF.