Cougar men close home slate with victory

PROVO — The second-ranked BYU men's volleyball team beat No. 15 Pacific in four games in its regular-season home finale Saturday night, but the Cougars still have unfinished business the next couple of weeks.

BYU improved to 18-4 overall and 14-4 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play with a 30-26, 28-30, 30-23, 30-27 victory over Pacific (7-17, 5-13 MSPF).

Seniors Rob Neilson, Taylor Evans, Victor Batista, Brian Rowley and Josh Brecheisen played their final regular-season home match before a Smith Fieldhouse crowd of 2,034.

Outhitting the Tigers' .430 to .220, the Cougars used a balanced attack with 15 kills each from Yosleyder Cala, Jonathan Charette and Russell Holmes, with Batista adding another dozen kills. The Cougars also outblocked the Tigers 16-6.5, with Batista in on eight blocks and Holmes seven.

The Cougars conclude the 2006 regular season with a pair of two-match road trips - next week at No. 6 Long Beach State and the following week at No. 3 Hawaii.

Top-ranked UC Irvine (22-3, 15-2 MPSF) has all but wrapped up the league's regular-season title and the honor of hosting the Mountain Pacific tournament semifinals and finals.

The tournament winner earns the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Final Four, with the winners of the two conferences - the Eastern Intercollegiate and Midwestern Intercollegiate - picking up the other two automatic berths.

The fourth NCAA Championship spot is an at-large berth - usually given to a Mountain Pacific team.

BYU has clinched a spot in the eight-team tournament but still hasn't sewn up a top-four seed, which merits hosting a quarterfinal match.

The Cougars need a strong showing to close the regular season not only for the best possible seeding in hopes of winning the MPSF tournament and the automatic NCAA berth but also to make its case as deserving the at-large spot if front-running UCI wins the tournament.

And even that's not guaranteed.

Yes, BYU is ranked second in the national polls, behind Irvine and ahead of Hawaii (19-4, 15-3 MPSF). But Hawaii is slightly ahead of the Cougars in the MPSF standings and is getting the one first-place vote in the AVCA/CSTV coaches poll that isn't going to UCI.

And Hawaii has an easier road ahead of it, as the Warriors close out with four matches at home - two against cellar-dweller UC San Diego before the following finales against the Cougars.

Still, BYU players would have it no other way, with the Cougars required to earn their keep rather than coast into the postseason.

"I think that's the best way to finish," Neilson said. "We can find out where we're at."

Evans agreed. "We have to win those four matches," he said, noting that Long Beach and Hawaii both possess large, open home courts where a less-raucous, less-intimidating crowd is farther away from the action than, say, the Smith Fieldhouse.

And, Evans added, the Cougars have been successful at both sites, including winning the 2004 NCAA title in Honolulu.

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E-mail: taylor@desnews.com