Cougars traveling to Cal State Northridge

PROVO — The BYU men's volleyball team — still ranked No. 4 nationally after splitting a pair of home matches last weekend — travels to No. 8 Cal State Northridge for matches Friday and Saturday nights. However, the Cougars will also have an eye on Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action across the Pacific Ocean.

BYU (15-8 overall, 10-6 MPSF) faces CSUN (14-10, 7-9 MPSF), a team riding a five-match win streak.

In Honolulu this weekend, No. 7 Hawaii (15-6, 11-5 MPSF) plays host to UC Santa Barbara (13-9, 15-6) in a pairing of the two teams tied for third place in the league standings, just ahead of fifth-place BYU and its 10-6 MSPF mark. A combination of a pair of Cougar victories and a split in Honolulu would result in a three-way logjam for third place.

The Cougars have faced both teams already, going 1-1 in a pair of matches at UCSB and sweeping Hawaii last month at home.

With three weeks remaining in the regular season, positioning in the MSPF standings becomes critical for the Cougars, who hope to finish in third place, behind frontrunners Pepperdine and UCLA.

The top eight teams from the 12-member Mountain Pacific advance to the MPSF tournament, with the top four seeds hosting the lower four in the first-round quarterfinals. The four first-round winners advance to the semifinals, hosted by the highest-seeded team still remaining.

BYU coach Tom Peterson would like his team to finish in third place, meaning a first-round tournament match at home as well as avoiding a pairing with highest-seeded and tournament-host opponent in the MSPF semifinals.

After this weekend the Cougars return to Provo for their regular-season home finales next weekend against UC San Diego — 7 p.m. April 8 and 9 — before closing the regular season April 15 and 16 at Stanford.

---

E-mail: taylor@desnews.com