Cougar spikers host Cardinal in 2 critical MPSF matches

PROVO — After downing defending NCAA men's volleyball champion UC Irvine in a pair of road matches last weekend, top-ranked BYU returns to the Smith Fieldhouse this weekend for a pair of home matches against No. 9 Stanford.

Now the sole unbeaten team in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, the Cougars (11-0 overall, 6-0 MPSF) meet the Cardinal (9-5, 5-5) in 7 p.m. matches both tonight and Saturday night. Tonight's match will be broadcast on BYUTV.

BYU is 20-8 overall against Stanford and 10-2 in matches played in Provo, where the Cardinal haven't beaten the Cougars since 2002. In fact, BYU has won the last 11 meetings overall, sweeping Stanford in six of those.

The two weekend foes have a pair of common opponents: Stanford also has beaten UC Irvine twice this season (one in a preseason tournament and once in a league match) but fell twice to CS Northridge, a team BYU beat twice in Provo earlier this season.

Stanford is coming off last week's five-set victory at Pacific last week.

BYU's first win at UCI last weekend was a five-gamer lasting 2 hours and 47 minutes, with the two teams setting the all-time MPSF mark for the highest fifth-game score at 28-26.

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