IRVINE, Calif., (Feb. 16, 2008) -- The No. 1 BYU men's volleyball team's senior contingent continues to lead the team as three seniors recorded double-doubles in a 3-1 win (28-30, 30-22, 30-24, 30-26) at UC Irvine Saturday to remain undefeated on the year. With the win the Cougars improve to 11-0 on the year and 6-0 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play, and the Anteaters fall to 8-8 and 5-6.

Outside Hitter Ivan Perez led the attack with 22 kills and 10 digs. All-American middle blocker Russell Holmes held down the defensive front with 10 blocks and 15 kills with a .524 hitting percentage. Opposite Jonathan Charette was also a major contributor as is per usual with 11 kills and 10 digs.

"Russell Holmes was outstanding for us tonight, especially from the service line," BYU head coach Shawn Patchell said. "We're scoring a lot of points with him serving. Jonathan Charette also served well tonight. And Reed Chilton came of the bench and set really well for us tonight on his birthday."

The first set saw a four-point lead at one point for the Cougars, but they could not hold on. The Anteaters took the lead at 27-26 and won the first set, 28-30, thanks in part to 12 total BYU errors.

The Cougar offense regrouped and matched the defensive production in the second set. As a team in the second set BYU hit almost double what it did in the first and held UCI to an attack percentage of 0.00 in the set. The Cougars knotted the match with a 30-22 second set win.

BYU's attack continued to improve in a 30-24 win in the third set. Three service aces and only one attack error propelled the team to the win with help from UCI's seven service errors in the set.

The Anteaters gave it their all in the fourth and final set, but did not have enough gas in the tank to outlast the top-ranked Cougars. UCI found few seems in the BYU block, and the Cougars ran away with the fourth set, 30-26.

Friday's match between No. 1 BYU and No. 6 UC Irvine was the longest in Cougar history, ending with a 28-26 BYU win in the fifth set. The Cougars now lead the series against the Anteaters 31-9 and 15-5 in Irvine. The Cougars are also 14-3 against the Anteaters since 2001.

Next on the docket for the unbeaten Cougars is a three-week home stand against MPSF opponents Stanford, Pacific, and Pepperdine. Stanford will come to Provo February 22-23 for two matches in the Smith Fieldhouse with start times at 7 p.m. MT.

Volleyball Box Score
                        2008 UC Irvine Men's Volleyball
            #1 BYU vs #6 UC Irvine (Feb 16, 2008 at Irvine, Calif.)
   BYU                    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  2|  1   0   1 1.000| 14|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0
7  SORENSEN, Trent.....  4|  7   2  13  .385|  1|  0   4|  0|  2| 0  7  1|  0
8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  4| 22  12  43  .233|  1|  3   4|  1| 10| 0  2  0|  0
11 HOLMES, Russell.....  4| 15   4  21  .524|  0|  0   2|  0|  6| 0 11  1|  0
13 CHARETTE, Jonathan..  4| 11   5  32  .188|  0|  2   4|  0| 10| 0  6  1|  0
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  4| 13   9  36  .111|  2|  1   1|  2|  7| 1  8  0|  0
1  TUTTLE, Kent........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
3  CHILTON, Reed.......  3|  0   0   2  .000| 47|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  4  0|  0
6  SILVA, Joel.........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0| 11| 0  0  0|  0
10 TAYLOR, Mat.........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
16 JUSTEN, Leandro.....  2|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 69  33 149  .242| 65|  6  16|  3| 52| 1 40  3|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 21.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17 12  40  .125   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  16  5  38  .289   BYU................. (3) 28 30 30 30  11-0, 6-0
   3  19  6  35  .371   UC Irvine........... (1) 30 22 24 27  8-8, 5-6
   4  17 10  36  .194
   UC Irvine              |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1  Steller, Jon........  4|  5   6  29 -.034|  0|  1   3|  0|  6| 1  0  0|  0
3  Ammerman, Ryan......  4|  1   1   3  .000| 20|  1   1|  0|  6| 0  6  0|  0
14 Carroll, Kevin......  3|  1   4  10 -.300|  0|  0   0|  3|  2| 0  2  1|  0
15 Yoder, Cory.........  4| 12   9  36  .083|  0|  0   1|  1|  6| 0  1  0|  0
19 Wynne, Kevin........  4|  6   1  12  .417|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 1 10  1|  0
21 Harrell, Aaron......  4| 12   2  22  .455|  1|  1   0|  0|  4| 1  8  0|  0
2  Wilson, Taylor......  3|  3   4  11 -.091|  0|  0   1|  1|  5| 1  2  0|  0
4  Spittle, Anthony....  3|  0   0   1  .000| 23|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0
5  Reinholm, Cole......  3|  9   4  22  .227|  1|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  6  0|  0
6  Spittle, Nick.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
7  DuFault, Jordan.....  2|  1   3   5 -.400|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  3  1|  0
8  Asuka, Brent........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1|  8| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 50  34 151  .106| 47|  3   8|  6| 44| 4 39  3|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 23.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  7  39  .179   Site: Irvine, Calif. (Bren Events Center)
   2  12 12  45  .000   Date: Feb 16, 2008   Attend: 1618   Time: 2:10
   3  11  6  34  .147   Referees: Verna Klubnikin, Scott Hogue
   4  13  9  33  .121

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.