PROVO, Utah – Behind double-digit kill totals for Jake Langlois and Tim Dobbert, No. 3 BYU men's volleyball swept UC San Diego (27-25, 25-21, 25-22) for the second-straight match Saturday night at the Smith Fieldhouse.
"It's good to go through some adversity and stay collected," BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead said. "There were some bumps, but our guys stayed composed and were able to pull out the win. It was a good opportunity to get some guys experience that they're going to need as we go through the season."
Langlois totaled 13 kills and Dobbert recorded 10. Both hit at a .333 clip. Dobbert, Miki Jauhiainen and Joseph Grosh led the Cougars with three blocks each and Wil Stanley had a team-best 27 assists.
BYU (12-2, 6-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) hit a .276 clip over the course of the match, while UC San Diego (5-9, 2-7 MPSF) had a .262 clip.
Unlike Friday night's match, Saturday's three-set contest didn't count as a conference match for the two teams.
The Cougars took an early 8-3 lead in the first set thanks to a block and kill on back-to-back points from Dobbert and an ace from Stanley. The Tritons rallied to tie the set several times and take their first two-point lead at 19-17. Consecutive kills from Grosh and Dobbert knotted things up at 20-20, and the set was tied again at 22-22, 24-24 and 25-25. Jauhiainen served an ace and Dobbert and Grosh had a block on set point to give BYU the 27-25 set win.
BYU jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the second set before UC San Diego quickly closed the gap. The two teams remained within one point of each other from the time the Cougars led 6-5 until they were up 13-12. With the Tritons again down one point at 16-15, Storm Fa'agata-Tufuga spiked Stanley's set for a kill and a two-point BYU lead. The advantage extended to 19-15 after a pair of UC San Diego errors. The Tritons scored five of the next six points to tie the set at 20-20. Three Langlois kills over the next six points secured a 25-21 win for the Cougars.
The first lead for BYU in the third set came on a kill from Grosh to put the Cougars ahead 6-5. He followed that up with a kill and an ace in the next three points to put BYU up 8-6, and a UC San Diego error put the Cougars up three. Later, Zach Eschenberg gave BYU its first six-point lead (15-9) of the night with back-to-back kills. Tanner Skabelund got his first career kill to put the Cougars up 19-13. The Tritons narrowed their deficit to three points a couple of times and then to two points at 24-22. Andrew Lincoln got the final kill of the night to clinch BYU's 25-22 third set and another sweep.
BYU travels to take on Stanford on Thursday and Friday next week. Thursday's match will begin at 7 p.m. PST and can be streamed on Pac-12.com.