LOS -- No. 4 BYU fell to No. 6 UCLA in Pauley Pavilion Friday night as the hot-hitting Bruins earned a 40-38, 30-21, 30-24 victory.
Providing some payback for a 3-2 loss to BYU on Jan. 7 in Santa Barbara, the Bruins sizzled on offense to sweep the Cougars in the first of two matches between the two teams this weekend in Westwood.
Kevin Sagers had 14 kills to pace BYU with Robb Stowell and Andrew Stewart adding 12 and 11, respectively. Each of the three Cougar attackers hit over .300—led by Stowell’s .370 success rate—but the nearly flawless performance on the other side of the net proved too much for BYU on this particular night.
Jack Polales led UCLA with 19 kills on 33 attacks to hit .545 while Dylan Bowermaster was a nearly perfect 14-of-16 to hit .750 while recording 14 scoring swings.
BYU hit a respectable .252 as a team but UCLA attacked at an impressive .459 rate to fuel its victory.
After UCLA edged BYU in a first-set thriller, the Bruins stayed in control the rest of the way to keep the Cougars from claiming at least one set in a match for the first time this season.
The first set proved to be the longest this year in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Bruins eventually triumphed by a 40-38 tally in a back-and-forth finish that saw BYU have six set-point opportunities and the Bruins four before finally getting the winning score. The Cougars hit .319 for the set but the Bruins were even hotter at .388.
UCLA started the first set strong, jumping out to an early 5-1 lead before the Cougars battled back and found their rhythm. BYU eventually evened the tally at 18-18 after back-to-back kills by Sagers. The battle remained close the rest of the way before the Bruins got consecutive points to break a 38-38 tie to earn the victory.
The Bruins again started quickly in the second set, scoring the first four points to match their largest lead of set one. Facing a 15-9 deficit, BYU put together a 6-0 run to erase UCLA’s advantage at the mid-point of the set. The Bruins, however, scored the next four points and never looked back to take a 2-0 lead in the match with a 30-21 win in the second set.
Not letting UCLA jump out to a quick start for a third straight set, Jeff Robinson put down three early kills after entering the match for the first time to help BYU take its first two-point advantage of the night at 3-1. The momentum, however, was short-lived as the Bruins continued their exceptional play to claim the lead at 5-4. UCLA never trailed again the rest of the way to complete the sweep with a 30-24 finish.
With the loss, BYU falls to 5-3 on the year and 3-2 in the MPSF, while UCLA improves to 4-4 overall and 3-2 in league play. The Cougars face the host Bruins again on Saturday at 7 p.m. PT in Pauley Pavilion.
Volleyball Box Score
The Automated ScoreBook
#4 BYU vs #6 UCLA (Jan 29, 2010 at UCLA)
BYU | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name SP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
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3 CHILTON, Reed....... 3| 0 0 2 .000| 19| 1 0| 0| 2| 0 0 0| 0| 1.0
5 LAVAJA, Russell..... 3| 3 1 8 .250| 2| 0 3| 0| 2| 0 3 0| 0| 4.5
11 SAGERS, Kevin....... 3| 14 5 27 .333| 0| 0 1| 1| 5| 0 2 0| 0| 15.0
13 STOWELL, Robb....... 3| 12 2 27 .370| 2| 0 4| 0| 5| 0 3 3| 0| 13.5
15 STEWART, Andrew..... 3| 11 4 23 .304| 0| 0 1| 1| 2| 1 0 0| 0| 12.0
17 TAVANA, Futi........ 2| 2 3 8 -.125| 0| 0 1| 0| 1| 0 1 0| 0| 2.5
1 TUTTLE, Kent........ 3| 1 2 6 -.167| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 1.0
4 SILVA, Joel......... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 1| 0 0| 0| 9| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
7 ROBINSON, Jeff...... 1| 3 2 5 .200| 0| 0 1| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 3.0
9 SOUZA, Otavio....... 1| 0 0 1 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
10 TAYLOR, Mat......... 2| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 2| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
14 PEREZ, Yamil........ 3| 0 0 0 .000| 17| 1 1| 0| 2| 0 0 0| 1| 1.0
TEAM................ | | | | 2| | | | 0.0
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Totals.............. 3| 46 19 107 .252| 41| 2 12| 6| 28| 1 9 3| 1| 53.5
TEAM ATTACK PER SET TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.5
Set K E TA Pct Sideout Pct
1 22 7 47 .319 27-39 69% SET SCORES 1 2 3 TEAM RECORDS
2 10 7 28 .107 15-30 50% BYU................. (0) 38 21 24 5-3 (3-2)
3 14 5 32 .281 19-29 65% UCLA................ (3) 40 30 30 4-4 (3-2)
UCLA | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name SP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
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7 Garrett Muagututia.. 3| 13 5 31 .258| 4| 2 2| 0| 5| 1 0 0| 0| 16.0
14 Jack Polales........ 3| 19 1 33 .545| 0| 0 3| 0| 2| 0 4 0| 0| 21.0
17 Dylan Bowermaster... 3| 14 2 16 .750| 1| 2 6| 0| 7| 0 2 0| 0| 17.0
18 Thomas Amberg....... 3| 5 0 9 .556| 0| 1 3| 0| 0| 0 4 0| 0| 8.0
25 Kevin Ker........... 3| 2 0 3 .667| 52| 0 2| 0| 6| 0 4 1| 0| 4.0
28 Nick Vogel.......... 3| 8 4 16 .250| 0| 1 5| 0| 1| 0 6 0| 0| 12.0
3 Tom Hastings........ 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 1| 8| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
4 Chen Levitan........ 2| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 1| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
8 Kyle Caldwell....... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 1| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
36 Jonathan Bridgeman.. 1| 1 0 1 1.000| 0| 0 1| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 1.0
TEAM................ | | | | 1| | | | 0.0
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Totals.............. 3| 62 12 109 .459| 58| 6 23| 2| 29| 1 20 1| 0| 79.0
TEAM ATTACK PER SET TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
Set K E TA Pct Sideout Pct
1 25 6 49 .388 28-39 71% Site: UCLA (Pauley Pavilion)
2 18 4 26 .538 15-21 71% Date: Jan 29, 2010 Attend: 1075 Time: 1:45
3 19 2 34 .500 20-25 80% Referees: Bob Oshita, Robert Okamura
1 2 3 Total
Tie scores 14 1 4 19
Lead changes 6 0 2 8