Regular Season Ends With Road Win Over No. 2 Pepperdine

MALIBU -- Despite losing the first set, the No. 6 BYU men’s volleyball team came back to claim a 3-1 road win (22-30, 30-21, 30-27, 30-26) over No. 2 Pepperdine as the regular season came to an end Friday night. Friday’s win marks the first for BYU at Pepperdine since the 2003 season, providing momentum as the Cougars prepare for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Men’s Volleyball Tournament next week.

With the win BYU secures a series split with Pepperdine and concludes the regular season with a 17-12, 13-9 MPSF record. The Cougars have recorded series splits with the nation’s first-, second- and fifth-ranked teams in each of the past three weekends.

“We feel great,” said BYU head coach Shawn Patchell. “This match tonight was very indicative of the toughness and resolve of our team. After losing a close one last night and getting embarrassed in the first set tonight, we came back to play the best we’ve played all season.”

Junior opposite Kent Tuttle led BYU with 22 kills on the night, while junior middle blocker Andrew Stewart racked up 18 kills with an impressive .500 hitting percentage. Redshirt freshman Futi Tavana also recorded double-digit kills with 11. He added a team-high six blocks.

The Cougars struggled offensively to start the first set with Tuttle recording a kill to stop an early 8-0 Pepperdine run. The Waves’ momentum continued on way to a 10-point advantage, yet Tuttle was able to close the gap to 13-7 with back-to-back service aces. BYU attack errors continued to mount, resulting in a .000 hitting percentage compared to Pepperdine’s .391. The Waves claimed the set 30-22.

A service ace by Yamil Perez gave BYU its first lead of the second set at 6-5. Several Pepperdine errors followed, as well as kills by Russell Lavaja and Tuttle, increasing the Cougar lead to six. BYU maintained a steady lead with kills from multiple Cougars including Kevin Sagers, Lavaja and Tuttle. Perez’s kill to put BYU up 24-19 marked the start of a 6-2 run to close the set. Both teams traded service errors on the final two points of the set, with the latter handing BYU the 30-21 win and tying the match at one-game-all. The Cougars hit an impressive .640 from the floor to go along with three service aces.

The service errors continued for both teams in the third set. After three consecutive miscues from the line, Stewart knocked down back-to-back kills, followed by another attack from Tuttle to give BYU a 12-6 advantage. The Waves fought and came back to tie the score 16-16, and again eight more times before Stewart’s two kills and service ace secured the 30-27 win.

Even play continued in the fourth set, with six tied scores before either team reached the halfway mark. A Pepperdine service error and Tuttle kill put the Cougars up 15-12, but the Waves matched them at 16-16 with two-time All-American Paul Carroll’s 24th kill of the night. Tavana and Sagers each added kills to give BYU a three-point advantage, while Tavana and Stewart combined for a block, bringing the score to 26-22. Pepperdine’s Carroll continued to put points on the board for his team, but the Cougar offense proved too much as a Tuttle kill clinched the set and overall win for BYU.

“The fact we can win at Pepperdine and at Stanford is huge,” said Patchell. “We’ll most likely be on the road for the first round of the conference tournament, but this is a huge confidence boost for a young team.”

The Cougars now return home to prepare for the first round of the MPSF Tournament on Saturday, April 25. As a sixth seed, BYU will go to No. 3 Cal State Northridge. The Matadors swept both matchups during the regular season.

Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young Univ. Cougar VolleyBall
        #6 BYU Cougars vs #2 Pepperdine (Apr 17, 2009 at Malibu, Calif.)
   BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5  LAVAJA, Russell.....  4|  8   3  17  .294|  1|  0   1|  0|  1| 1  3  2|  0
10 TAYLOR, Mat.........  1|  0   2   4 -.500|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  4|  1   0   3  .333| 60|  2   4|  0|  4| 0  2  0|  0
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  4| 18   4  28  .500|  1|  1   1|  2|  4| 0  3  0|  0
17 TAVANA, Futi........  4| 11   0  17  .647|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  6  1|  0
23 DA PRON, Alex.......  2|  1   2   7 -.143|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
1  TUTTLE, Kent........  4| 22   5  36  .472|  0|  2   7|  0|  4| 0  3  1|  0
3  CHILTON, Reed.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
4  SILVA, Joel.........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  6| 0  0  0|  0
8  KAULIAKAMOA, Joe....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
11 SAGERS, Kevin.......  4|  7   2  18  .278|  1|  2   6|  0|  8| 0  1  0|  0
18 HIAPO, BJ...........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 68  18 130  .385| 64|  8  23|  3| 28| 1 18  4|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11 11  34  .000   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  18  2  25  .640   BYU Cougars......... (3) 22 30 30 30  17-12, 13-9 MPSF
   3  20  3  36  .472   Pepperdine.......... (1) 30 21 27 26  20-4, 18-4 MPSF
   4  19  2  35  .486
   Pepperdine             |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1  JAYNES, Tyler.......  4|  4   1   8  .375|  1|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  5  2|  0
2  SANTOS, Rodnei......  4|  4   2   8  .250|  2|  1   2|  0|  1| 0  3  2|  0
5  RIECKS, Cory........  4| 12   4  26  .308|  1|  0   2|  4|  7| 0  2  0|  0
6  McKEE, Matt.........  4|  4   3  12  .083|  0|  1   1|  2|  1| 1  2  1|  0
10 CRIDER, Kasey.......  4|  0   0   1  .000| 52|  0   4|  0|  8| 0  0  1|  0
12 CARROLL, Paul.......  4| 31   7  51  .471|  0|  0   3|  0|  5| 0  3  0|  0
11 ROSS, Chase.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
14 GRUBBS, Sean........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  2|  6| 0  0  0|  0
15 PEDERSEN, Sean......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
20 HULSE, Mark.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
21 SCHIRRIPA, Brent....  3|  5   1   9  .444|  0|  0   1|  0|  5| 0  1  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 60  18 115  .365| 59|  3  18|  8| 33| 1 16  6|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  4  23  .391   Site: Malibu, Calif. (Firestone Fieldhouse)
   2  11  4  21  .333   Date: Apr 17, 2009   Attend: 1310   Time: 1:58
   3  15  4  36  .306   Referees: Larry Shwartz, Scott Hogue
   4  21  6  35  .429