BYU volleyball: Cougs vie for title, Final 4 berth

A double-dip delight awaits the third-ranked BYU men's volleyball team tonight as it faces fifth-ranked Pepperdine for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship.

The first obvious "dip" — the MPSF Tournament title. And the most delightful second "dip" — the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Final Four.

The Cougars (25-4) meet the Waves (15-10) at 8 p.m. MDT in Long Beach, Calif.

The two postseason prizes would be BYU's first since its 2004 national championship.

Seeded second in the tournament after tying top-seed Long Beach State for first place in the MPSF regular-season standings, the Cougars defeated No. 7 seed and defending national champion UC Irvine last weekend in the quarterfinals and swept fourth-ranked and No. 3 seed Cal State Northridge in Thursday's semifinals, 30-22, 30-28, 30-26.

For the third time in as many postseason matches, BYU faces a MPSF peer it has beaten twice already in the regular season. The Cougars downed the Waves 3-1 and 3-0 in early March at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo.

But Pepperdine has its own postseason three-peat on its mind — another upset. The fifth-seeded Waves upset No. 4 seed UCLA at Pauley Pavilion in last weekend's quarterfinals and then shocked second-ranked and top-seeded Long Beach State in Thursday's semis, needing a marathon-like third-game score to sweep the 49ers 30-27, 30-22, 43-41.

The Final Four is comprised of the tournament champions from the NCAA's three leagues — the powerhouse-laden Mountain Pacific, the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) and the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA).

Top-ranked Penn State faces George Mason in tonight's EIVA championship match on the Nittany Lions' home court. However, George Mason is the team that handed Penn State its only loss of the season.

Ninth-ranked Ohio State is playing host to Ball State in the MIVA finals tonight.

A fourth "at-large" team is invited to fill out the Final Four quartet, with the invitee almost always coming from the stacked MPSF. But a couple scenarios could cost the Cougars an extended postseason if they fail to win the MPSF title and auto invite.

First, if Penn State loses and George Mason is the EIVA Final Four representative, it would be hard to overlook the Nittany Lions as the at-large selection.

Also, if Pepperdine handily defeats BYU, one could make a case to pick Long Beach over BYU, since the 49ers beat the Cougars in both their regular-season matches.

However, it could be countered that BYU rebounded from those losses to win eight straight matches while LBSU finished the season 4-3.

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E-mail: taylor@desnews.com