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PROVO -- Playing its home opener in front of the largest crowd in nearly three years, the No. 5 BYU men’s volleyball team swept Pacific, 33-31, 30-25, 30-21, Friday night at the Smith Fieldhouse. The 4,024 in attendance marked the most since the Cougars dropped a 3-2 match to then-No. 2 UC Irvine on Feb. 3, 2007 in front of 5,603 fans.

“Pacific is a good, new team who played really well tonight,” said BYU head coach Shawn Patchell. “We didn’t play the way we wanted to offensively to start the match. We need to learn to play in front of our home crowd.”

Outside hitters Andrew Stewart and Kevin Sagers led BYU with nine kills apiece, while Stewart also recorded eight digs. As a team the Cougars tied a season-high 18 blocks, with middle blockers Russell Lavaja and Futi Tavana putting up seven blocks each.

“We blocked really well tonight,” said Patchell. “We’ve really been working hard on that in practice so to see it come to fruition tonight was great. You usually don’t win on blocks alone, but with nine in the first set, we managed to win ugly.”

It was one of those blocks that secured the first set win for BYU—a combined block by Lavaja and Robb Stowell. After leading by as many as three points, the Cougars found themselves in a close battle midway through the first set. After back-to-back kills by Pacific’s Nikola Vukicevic tied it up 16-16, the two teams continued to trade points, knotting the score 11 more times. A kill from Sagers put BYU up 32-31 and set up the game-winning block.

The second set was back-and-forth from the start with neither team scoring two consecutive points until the Tigers took the 6-4 lead. With Pacific holding a 12-11 advantage, Tavana made his presence felt, as he was responsible for the next three points after a kill a two blocks. Gradually pulling away thanks to four knockdowns from Sagers, the Cougars claimed the set on a solo Stewart block.

By set three BYU had founds its rhythm, leading by as many as 11 points after a kill by Sagers and joint bock from Stewart and Lavaja. Service errors continued to plague both teams, as they combined for 41 miscues from the line. Senior Mat Taylor subbed in late and knocked down two kills, giving the Cougars their first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation win of the season.

The Cougars and Tigers meet again on Saturday at 7 p.m. MT in the Smith Fieldhouse.

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
                PACIFIC vs #5 BYU (Jan 15, 2010 at Provo, Utah)
   PACIFIC                |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1  Jason Borchin.......  3|  6   2  15  .267|  1|  0   1|  1|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   6.5
3  Nikola Vukicevic....  2|  4   3   8  .125|  0|  0   4|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   4.0
6  Patrick Tunnell.....  3|  2   1   3  .333| 34|  1   0|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  1|   3.5
12 Taylor Hughes.......  3| 10  12  27 -.074|  0|  0   3|  0|  6| 1  0  0|  0|  11.0
13 Sean Daley..........  3|  9   1  16  .500|  0|  0   6|  0|  1| 0  4  0|  0|  11.0
15 Florian Gornik......  3|  7   8  24 -.042|  1|  0   6|  1|  7| 0  1  1|  0|   7.5
2  Kevin Downing.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
4  Mark Bauhs..........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
5  Matthew Houlihan....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
10 Chaz Hindsley.......  2|  2   1   4  .250|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   2.5
11 Clay Ostrander......  3|  1   1   5  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  3| 41  29 102  .118| 40|  1  22|  2| 28| 1  8  1|  1|  47.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                            TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct Sideout Pct
   1  19 11  38  .211  19-32  59%   SET SCORES                1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  13 10  37  .081  20-30  66%   PACIFIC............. (0) 31 25 21  4-1, 0-1 MPSF
   3   9  8  27  .037  22-29  75%   BYU................. (3) 33 30 30  3-1, 1-0 MPSF
   BYU                    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3  CHILTON, Reed.......  3|  0   1   1-1.000| 27|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  0|   1.5
5  LAVAJA, Russell.....  3|  4   1   5  .600|  0|  2   3|  0|  2| 0  7  0|  0|   9.5
7  ROBINSON, Jeff......  2|  2   2   6  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  0|   2.5
13 STOWELL, Robb.......  3|  8   3  18  .278|  0|  0   3|  0|  2| 1  3  0|  0|  10.5
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  3|  9   1  19  .421|  1|  0   0|  0|  8| 1  6  1|  0|  13.0
17 TAVANA, Futi........  3|  4   2  12  .167|  0|  0   4|  0|  4| 0  7  0|  0|   7.5
8  KAULIAKAMOA, Joe....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
9  SOUZA, Otavio.......  1|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
10 TAYLOR, Mat.........  2|  3   2   7  .143|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   3.5
11 SAGERS, Kevin.......  3|  9   2  20  .350|  0|  0   4|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0|  10.5
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  3|  0   0   1  .000|  6|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  1|   0.5
18 HIAPO, BJ...........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  3| 39  15  90  .267| 36|  2  19|  1| 28| 2 32  1|  1|  59.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                            TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 18.0
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct Sideout Pct
   1  13  7  36  .167  19-32  59%   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  10  4  30  .200  19-25  75%   Date: Jan 15, 2010   Attend: 4024   Time: 1h 44m
   3  16  4  24  .500  23-22 104%   Referees: Tom Given, Daphne Nelson, Trent Mano

Match Outlook

The No. 5 BYU men’s volleyball team (2-1) holds its home opener this weekend, hosting fellow Mountain Pacific Sports Federation team Pacific (4-0) at 7 p.m. MT on Friday and Saturday nights. The contests will mark the first conference matchups for both teams.

The Tigers remained perfect to open the season after a 3-0 sweep of UC Santa Cruz on Jan. 9. Pacific opened the season with an earlier win over the Banana Slugs and back-to-back victories against Grand Canyon.

Series Info

BYU holds a 23-5 lead in the series between these two teams dating back to Feb. 6, 1993. The Cougars hold an undefeated 13-0 record against the Tigers in Provo, with their most recent victories coming in 2008. BYU has won the last 9 meetings and 13 of the last 14. Three of the five wins Pacific has over BYU have come in five sets, while 15 of the Cougars’ wins have been sweeps. Most recently, BYU defeated Pacific on back-to-back nights in Feb. 2009.

Match Coverage

Friday’s match will be broadcast live on BYU-TV. Fans may watch a live stream at www.byutv.org.

Live stats are available at the BYU men’s volleyball schedule page at www.byucougars.com. Gametracker can be launched by clicking on the “Live Stats” link for the appropriate game on the schedule.

Coming Off...

The Cougars are coming off a 2-1 showing at the Santa Barbara Invitational last week, recording wins over No. 2 UC Irvine (3-1) and No. 8 UCLA (3-2). Advancing to the tournament’s final round, the Cougars dropped a close 3-1 match to No. 9 Cal State Northridge. Senior outside hitter Andrew Stewart knocked down double-digit kills in all three matches.