UCLA Travels to BYU for MPSF Quarterfinals
April 21, 2010
The seventh-ranked UCLA men's volleyball team (16-13) will travel to No.2 BYU (21-8) for the quarterfinals of the MPSF playoffs this weekend. The Bruins and Cougars will meet Sat., Apr. 24 at 7 p.m. in Smith Fieldhouse on the BYU campus.
BYU will originate a live streaming webcast on byutv at www.byucougars.com and post live stats during the match.
In the current format of the MPSF playoffs (since 1995), the Bruins are 18-9 overall with four conference tournament championships. In the league playoffs, the Bruins and Cougars have met twice with UCLA winning both matches at Pauley Pavilion, 3-0. UCLA and BYU have never met in Provo, UT in a conference playoff match.
Prior to its 3-2 loss to CS Northridge on Saturday night, BYU had won 11 straight matches, the longest in the MPSF this season. The Cougars finished the conference schedule as the league's best blocking team (3.78 blk/set) and were first in opponents' hitting percentage (.250). BYU's Futi Tavana (1.78) and Russell Lavaja (1.55) finished 1-2 in the conference in individual blocking. Tavana also ranked eighth in the league in hitting percentage at .431.
The Bruins won the conference serving title, recording 1.47 aces/set and were led by senior setter Kevin Ker, who recorded a team-best 32 aces and ranked fourth in the league at 0.38 aces/set. Ker also ranked 10th at 10.96 assists/set. Senior outside hitter Garrett Muagututia finished 10th in the conference at 4.07 kills/set and sophomore Nick Vogel ranked sixth at 1.18 blocks/set.
The Bruins and Cougars split a pair of conference matches in late January. On Jan. 29, the Bruins played one of their best matches of the season in a 3-0 victory. UCLA out-blocked BYU, 11.0-5.5 and recorded an attack percentage of .459, while holding the visitors to a percentage of .252. UCLA served six aces to BYU's two and out-hit the Cougars, 62-46 in kills.
UCLA hitters Jack Polales (19 kills, .545), Dylan Bowermaster (14 kills, .750) and Garrett Muagututia (13 kills) led the winners. The Cougars' Kevin Sagers (14 kills, .333), Robb Stowell (12 kills, .370) and Andrew Stewart (11 kills, .304) also recorded double-digit kills.
The following night was an epic, five-set battle with BYU winning 3-2. Muagututia led all players with 27 kills (.385) and 31.0 points, and Stewart led BYU with 22 kills (.333). The Cougars won the battle at the net, 20.0 total blocks to 15.0.
In other MPSF playoff matches, USC (16-10) visits CS Northridge (21-8); Stanford (19-6) hosts UC Irvine (15-14) and Pepperdine (16-8) travels to Hawaii (18-9). All matches will take place on Apr. 24. The UCLA-BYU winner faces the USC-CS Northridge winner in the MPSF semifinals on Apr. 29.