McGown named AVCA Coach of the Year

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LOS ANGELES - The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced BYU’s Chris McGown as the 2013 AVCA Men’s Division I-II National Coach of the Year.

McGown, also named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Coach of the Year, led the Cougars to their first NCAA Final Four appearance since 2004 and a 25-4 overall record entering the NCAA tournament. BYU held the No. 1 national ranking in the AVCA poll for 11 of the 15 regular season weeks, including the final seven.

BYU finished the season with a 21-3 conference record and won both the MPSF regular season and tournament titles. The Cougars won the regular season title by three matches and clinched the No. 1-seed in the tournament on March 30, the earliest the seed has ever been clinched during the rally-scoring era.  

BYU recorded 13 sweeps during the year, including in the MPSF championship match against Long Beach State. The Cougars went the entire season without back-to-back losses and rode a 12-match win streak between Feb. 16 through April 5. BYU went undefeated in March for only the second time in program history and dropped just four sets the entire month.

McGown mentored three 2013 AVCA All-Americans in Ben Patch, Taylor Sander and Russ Lavaja, including Division I-II Newcomer of the Year Patch. BYU also produced six MPSF All-Conference selections, including Freshman of the Year (Patch) and Player of the Year (Sander).

McGown, who is in just his second season at the helm for BYU, has compiled a 49-11 record. With an NCAA semifinal victory this Thursday, BYU’s 26th win will be the third most all-time for the program and most since ’04, its last national title season.

The Cougars kick off the NCAA tournament Thursday at 9 p.m. MDT against No. 4-seed Penn State at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.