Cougars Drop One to Alberta

CALGARY -- Beginning the BYU men’s volleyball preseason, the Cougars dropped their first match 3-2 against the Alberta Golden Bears Friday.

Juniors led the Cougars with opposite Robb Stowell posting an impressive 25 kills on a .400 clip while junior Alex DaPron tallied 11 kills. Junior Joe Kauliakamoa recorded 57 assists while junior Futi Tavana had nine blocks. Stowell also led on defense with seven digs.

Starting for the first pre-season match for the Cougars was Tavana, Kauliakamoa, DaPron, Quentin Smith, Stowell, Taylor Sander and Jeff Robinson as libero.

BYU started out fast with a 3-0 run until the Golden Bears battled back to knot the score at four. Three-straight Alberta points got the Cougars down by two. With back-and-forth play, the Cougars finally pulled away with a Golden Bear service error and a kill from DaPron. Maintaining the lead for the rest of the set, BYU put away set one 25-23 with a last kill from true freshman Taylor Sander.

Set two was evenly matched, knotting the score 12 times. The last tie came at 24, DaPron taking matters into his own hands and putting down two-straight kills to win set two 26-24.

The Cougars were found on their heels to begin set three, Alberta coming out with a 3-0 run, BYU unable to respond. Keeping the score close, the Cougars couldn’t come out with the lead, falling 25-22.

Tying the score at seven out of eight times to begin the fourth set, the Golden Bears tallied two-straight points to make the score 10-8 in favor of Alberta. Staying within three points of the lead, the Cougars tried to chip away at the score, but were unable to get back on top, losing 25-21, sending the match to five.

A 3-0 Golden Bear run to start the fifth was a deficit the Cougars were unable to make up, dropping the set and match 15-10, 3-2.

The Cougars will be back in action Friday night at 7 p.m. MT to face Calgary.