Match Outlook
The No. 4 BYU men’s volleyball team (5-2, 3-1 MPSF) heads out on its first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation road trip to take on No. 6 UCLA (3-4, 2-2 MPSF) for a two-match series this weekend. This will mark the second and third meetings between the two teams this season, as they previously met in the second round of the UC Santa Barbara Invitational. BYU defeated UCLA, 3-2, in that match on Jan. 7.
The Bruins are coming off an upset sweep over then-No. 2 Cal State Northridge on Jan. 23. Playing in a hostile environment, UCLA handed the Matadors their first loss of the 2010 season.
Series Info
Although the Bruins lead the all-time series against the Cougars, BYU is 12-6 against UCLA since the beginning of the 2001 National Championship season. A weekend sweep for either team has been hard to come by in Los Angeles, with each series ending in a split dating back to 2002. Twenty-four of the 44 total meetings between BYU and UCLA have resulted in sweeps, while 12 have gone to four sets and only eight have reached the five-set mark. The two teams split two matches played in Provo last season.
Match Coverage
Live stats are available at the UCLA men’s volleyball schedule page at www.uclabruins.com. Gametracker can be launched by clicking on the link next to the appropriate game on the schedule.
Darren Preston will call the audio play-by-play on www.uclabruins.com.
Coming Off...
The Cougars are coming off a weekend split against No. 3 Stanford. 4,024 fans were in attendance on Friday as BYU handed the Cardinal its first loss of the season. Those in attendance didn’t go home disappointed as they saw some dominating performances from the Cougars. Senior outside hitter Andrew Stewart knocked down 21 kills, one short of his career high, and picked up 12 digs to give him the fifth double-double of his career. Also recording double-digit kills for BYU were Robb Stowell and Futi Tavana with 15 and 11, respectively. Despite suffering a 3-1 loss on Saturday, BYU was led by Stowell, who tied his career high of 22 kills. Three other Cougars recorded double-digit kills, including Stewart with 18, Tavana with 16 and Russell Lavaja with 15. Tavana and Lavaja both earned new career highs. Reed Chilton set a career-high 69 assists.