HONOLULU – Sophomore opposite Ben Patch led No. 2 BYU men's volleyball to its 11th-consecutive sweep (25-20, 25-20, 25-23) at No. 7 Hawai'i Wednesday night.
"I was impressed with our team's composure throughout the night," BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead said. "I saw a lot of bright spots, but it's always nice to win as a team."
Patch led the Cougars with 22 kills on a season-high .700 clip to go along with three digs and three blocks. Leo Durkin paced the offense with 44 assists while Erik Sikes chipped in a match-high seven digs. Price Jarman added a career-high tying nine blocks and Jake Langlois contributed 14 kills and five digs in the win.
Kills from Patch and Jarman helped propel BYU (15-2, 11-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) to an early 4-1 lead against Hawai'i (10-8, 5-8 MPSF) in the first set. The Rainbow Warriors fought back within a point down 8-7 before the Cougars went on a 7-1 run, capped off by a pair of Patch and Jarman blocks, to extend their lead to seven at 15-8. Hawai'i then came back with a 7-1 run of its own to rally within a point at 17-16 with help from a trio of blocks. Three more kills from Patch helped BYU go back up by five at 22-17 but three-straight Warriors points kept the set close at 22-20. Patch ended the set 25-20, however, with his ninth kill of the set on the second touch of the rally.
A Jarman kill helped the Cougars go up 5-4 to start a tightly-contested second set. Tied at 11-all, a 4-1 burst from BYU gave the Cougars a 15-12 lead. The set remained close until another Patch kill and block from Langlois and Jarman forced a Hawai'i timeout at 20-16. Tim Dobbert and Jarman teamed up for a block to extended BYU's advantage at 22-17 before a Warrior service error gave the Cougars the set 25-20.
Hawai'i jumped out to a three-point 8-5 lead early in the third set, forcing Olmstead to take a timeout. Kills from Brenden Sander, Patch and a block from Sander and Hatch tied the set at 13-all. BYU then took its first lead of the set at 15-14 on an overpass kill from Langlois. The Cougars led by as many as three as another Sander kill kept BYU ahead 22-19. A Langlois kill gave the Cougars set point at 24-22 and another Patch kill ended the match 25-23.
The Cougars face off against the Warriors again Friday night in a rematch at the Stan Sheriff Center beginning at 7 p.m. HST. The match will be broadcast live on OC Sports. Links to live stats and video/audio feeds can be found on the BYU men's volleyball schedule page.