BYU volleyball: BYU volleyball earns revenge over UC Irvine

PROVO — Third-ranked BYU took its first postseason step toward a national men's volleyball title as the Cougars downed defending NCAA champion UC Irvine in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament quarterfinals Saturday night.

Seeded second in the tourney, BYU (24-4) blitzed eighth-ranked and seventh-seeded UCI (16-15) in the first two games and eked out the decisive fourth game for the 30-20, 30-22, 28-30, 30-28 victory, avenging Irvine's elimination of BYU in last year's MPSF semifinals.

Next up for the Cougars is Thursday's semifinals — top seed Long Beach State is hosting the semis and finals — to face fourth-ranked CS Northridge (23-6), which swept Stanford in their quarterfinal.

BYU has an eye on the two top prizes — the MPSF Tournament championship and the accompanying automatic NCAA Final Four berth. They're something the Cougars haven't claimed since 2004, their most-recent national championship season.

"Actually, we've never passed the semifinals — ever — since I've been here," said senior outside hitter Ivan Perez of his Cougar senior class of '08.

Hitting .406 while unleashing some of his most powerful kills of the season, Perez finished with a match-high 19 kills and 12 digs for his ninth double-double of the year.

But it was far from a solo showing, as fellow outside Andrew Stewart added 12 kills on .455 hitting, opposite Jonathan Charette 11 kills and middle blocker Russell Holmes 10 kills at a .500 clip.

For the match, BYU hit .364 with 14.5 blocks — well above the Anteaters' .193 and five blocks. Stewart assisted on eight blocks, Holmes added a solo and seven assists and Trent Sorensen helped on six.

BYU hit a blistering .517 and .556 in the first two games and was near the .500 clip in the third en route to a 28-25 lead, needing just two points for the three-set sweep.

But it didn't come, as UCI won the game with five straight points, forcing the fourth.

"We played great and had a lot of energy — we were in cruise control," said Perez, musing that perhaps the Cougars thought they had the Anteaters down. "They weren't — they're a national championship team."

With UCI finally adjusting to high-altitude serving, BYU managed a meager .088 hitting in the fourth — and rallied from a 25-23 deficit to win the set and match.