Ivan Perez had 17 kills in BYU's 3-2 loss to UC Irvine. (Photo by Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo)

IRVINE -- For the second-consecutive night, the Cougars dropped a close one to UC Irvine, losing in five games (29-31, 30-26, 30-26, 24-30, 15-10) Saturday. BYU is now 14-4 overall and 12-4 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while the Anteaters are 19-3 overall and 12-2 in league play.

"We played a very good and consistent team," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "We showed that we can win but we aren't consistent enough. We need to improve our ball control. We didn't pass and serve well tonight. If we can improve that, we'll be better."

Yosleyder Cala led BYU with 18 kills while Ivan Perez added 17. Jonathan Charette also posted double-digit kills, tallying 12. Russell Holmes and Victor Batista led the Cougars with eight blocks each and Rob Neilson chipped in 57 assists and nine digs. As a team, BYU hit .270 (65-27-141) and had 32 digs and 18.0 blocks.

Matt Weber led Irvine with 20 kills and while Jayson Jablonsky had 17 and Aaron Harrell added 14. The Anteaters hit .254 (66-31-138) and had 35 digs and 15.0 blocks.

Game one was ugly for both teams as the Cougars hit .086 and Irvine hit .188. The Anteaters made fewer errors and just enough plays, though, winning the game 31-29.

Both teams heated up in game two as BYU hit .571 and Irvine .520. The Cougars went on to win 30-26 and took game three by an identical score, out-hitting the Anteaters .375 to .122.

Irvine stormed back to take game four, winning 30-24 and then won game five, 15-10, while limiting BYU to a negative hitting percentage of .067.

The Cougars will step out of conference play next weekend when they face Ohio State and Rutgers-Newark in the Long Beach Tournament, Friday and Saturday, March 17 and 18, at the Pyramid.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
             BYU Cougars vs UC Irvine (Mar 11, 2006 at Irvine, CA)
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  CALA, Yosleyder.....  5| 18  10  45  .178|  1|  1   5|  0|  7| 0  6  0|  0|  22.0
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  5| 12   3  23  .391|  1|  0   3|  0|  6| 0  4  1|  0|  14.0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  5| 17   7  38  .263|  0|  3   5|  0|  2| 1  2  0|  0|  22.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  5|  8   2  13  .462|  2|  0   3|  0|  1| 0  8  0|  0|  12.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  5|  3   1   6  .333| 57|  1   0|  0|  9| 0  6  0|  1|   7.0
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  5|  6   3  14  .214|  1|  2   6|  0|  1| 0  8  3|  0|  12.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  5|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  5|  1   1   2  .000|  0|  1   3|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 65  27 141  .270| 62|  8  25|  6| 32| 1 34  4|  1|  91.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 18.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12  9  35  .086   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  18  2  28  .571   BYU Cougars......... (2) 29 30 30 24 10  14-4, 12-4
   3  15  3  32  .375   UC Irvine........... (3) 31 26 26 30 15  19-3, 12-2
   4  16  8  31  .258
   5   4  5  15 -.067
    UC Irvine              |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  Thornton, Brian.....  5|  1   0   1 1.000| 57|  1   0|  0|  6| 2  2  0|  0|   5.0
 10 Spittle, Paul.......  5|  9   8  29  .034|  0|  0   2|  3|  5| 0  3  0|  0|  10.5
 11 Jablonsky, Jayson...  5| 17   5  31  .387|  0|  1   5|  2|  5| 0  2  2|  0|  19.0
 13 Webber, Matt........  5| 20  13  43  .163|  1|  3   4|  1|  4| 0  5  0|  0|  25.5
 15 Smith, David........  5|  5   4  14  .071|  3|  1   4|  0|  2| 2  5  2|  0|  10.5
 21 Harrell, Aaron......  5| 14   1  20  .650|  0|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  5  0|  0|  16.5
 2  Wilson, Taylor......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 8  Asuka, Brent........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  2| 10| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 12 Simpson, Brett......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 18 Ammerman, Ryan......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 25 Rangel, Steffin.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 66  31 138  .254| 62|  6  18|  8| 35| 4 22  4|  0|  87.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16 10  32  .188   Site: Irvine, CA (Crawford Court)
   2  16  3  25  .520   Date: Mar 11, 2006   Attend: 800   Time: 2:28
   3  15 10  41  .122   Referees: Verna Klubnikin, Alvin Dong
   4  11  5  26  .231
   5   8  3  14  .357