From Deseret News archives:
BYU volleyball: Team seeks first sweep of Bruins
BYU (16-1 overall, 11-1 MPSF) faces No. 9 UCLA (13-9, 8-6 MPSF) in a pair of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches tonight and Friday night in Pauley Pavilion.
BYU leads the MPSF standings by a half-game over No. 3 Long Beach State, while UCLA is in fourth place, behind second-ranked Cal State Northridge.
While UCLA — a longtime volleyball power — leads the overall series, BYU is 10-4 against the Bruins since 2001, including last year's two-match sweep in Provo and a 1-1 split the year before in L.A. The Cougars have never won a season's two regular-season matches played at Pauley Pavilion.
BYU has won four straight since suffering its sole loss of 2007 — a 3-0 upset to Stanford in Provo on Feb. 23.
UCLA went through a four-loss skid and dropped six of eight matches in one stretch, but the Bruins have won three straight since and are 8-2 at home so far in '07.
Similar to BYU, UCLA already this season has swept two matches from both Pepperdine and defending NCAA champion UC Irvine. The Bruins have lost a pair to crosstown rival Southern California and the only outings to date against both Long Beach State and Northridge, the latter having lost twice earlier at BYU.
The Cougars' current stretch of two matches each against Pepperdine, UCLA and Long Beach State (next week's opponent) is the first time in program history that BYU has faced the premier powerhouses in back-to-back-to-back weeks.
E-mail: taylor@desnews.com
