By James Davis

Deseret News

PROVO — The BYU men's volleyball team was up for the challenge of hosting No. 1-ranked UC Irvine on Thursday night, coming away with a dominating 3-1 upset.

In spite of an awful second set as the Cougars hit -.027 as a team, BYU held the upper hand for most of the rest of the match to grab the big Mountain Pacific Sports Federation victory (30-24, 20-30, 30-18, 30-28). The Cougars (15-9, 11-6) and Anteaters (19-4, 14-3 MPSF) meet up again tonight at 7.

"After Northridge, my guys have kind of made this paradigm shift where we've agreed to play as a team," BYU coach Shawn Patchell said. "We've been playing better and getting better and we're peaking at the right time."

Kent Tuttle, who had 10 kills while hitting .350 for the Cougars in the match, left the game late in the first set after diving into the stands after a ball. For his efforts, Tuttle missed the second set, earning 10 staples to the head before then returning in the third.

"It was a little tough just to come right back in after sitting out a whole came," he said. "But I just kept telling Yamil (Perez) to keep setting me the ball so I could get back in a groove and we were able to do that."

After the dismal 30-20 showing in the second set, the Cougars came out of the break an inspired team in the third. Leading 6-5, the Cougars went on a 6-0 run with Perez serving to go up 12-5. The Cougars didn't stop, pushing the lead to as much as 13 before winning 30-18.

"Besides just serving, (Perez) set the ball extremely well and he forced the middle of the court," Patchell said. "I think that was one of his best nights setting — and serving, he's one of our best serving."

The Cougars got some nice blocking and rode an 8-1 run to go up 17-11 in the fourth. Backed against the wall the Anteaters showed some fight and closed the gap to 20-17. BYU then pushed back to win 30-28.

"We have more work to do tomorrow night," Patchell said. "We can really help ourselves in the MPSF with another win (tomorrow)."

E-MAIL: jdavis@desnews.com