BYU volleyball: Cougars cruise to win over Waves

PROVO — They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Maybe it improves your volleyball game, too.

After a month on the road, the No. 4-ranked BYU men's volleyball team returned home and rode a wave of support provided by a packed crowd at the Smith Fieldhouse to pull out a 3-1 (30-28, 25-30, 30-27, 30-18) victory over No. 1 Pepperdine on Friday night.

The Cougars recorded their best hitting percentage of the season (.441) in snapping No. 1 Pepperdine's eight-game winning streak.

"It's great to be back at home," said Cougars head coach Shawn Patchell. "It seems foreign, we've been gone for so long. It seems like it's been forever. But we're back, and this win was big for us. Pepperdine is the best offensive team in the country so this was a great win for our team."

The Cougars (10-6, 8-5 MPSF) are now 5-5 when they play against teams ranked in the top 10.

Sophomore opposite Robb Stowell led the Cougars (10-6, 8-5) with 22 kills, while senior outside hitter Andrew Stewart added 15 kills and a team-high 12

digs. Reed Chilton had 58 assists and three opportunistic kills as the orchestrator of a Cougar offense that hit a season-high .441 for the match.

"The keys for us are serving and passing," Patchell said. "If we can serve in, then our defense can go to work. And if we pass, then we have good setters that allow us to hit over .400 like we did tonight. We played well as a team tonight."

After the teams split the first two sets, BYU's defense came to life to put the match away. Stewart joined the Cougar front line of middle blockers Russell Lavaja and Futi Tavana to hold the Waves to a meager .189 hitting percentage as BYU won the third set 30-27.

Lavaja finished with six block assists while Tavana had five, and the two combined for 18 kills. Lavaja hit a team-high .714 for the match.

"We're the best blocking team in the MPSF, and maybe in the nation," Patchell said. "(The Waves) were playing well, but we didn't want to make any adjustments. We just started reading the ball a little better and reading the setter a little better. We were patient, and those things helped us to slow them down."

After all but disappearing in the second set, Stewart came out with a vengeance to hammer down five kills in the third. He also notched four digs and two block assists while providing an emotional spark while the Cougars stole the momentum.

"(Andrew) showed a lot of maturity," Patchell said. "In the past, maybe we lose him and he spends some time with me on the bench after struggling for a

set. But I've learned to be more patient and he's learned to step up his energy. We need him. He's our captain and usually if he does well then we win."

Pepperdine (9-5, 8-4) looked nothing like the country's top-ranked team as it self-destructed late in the match. The Waves committed nine hitting errors, four serving errors and two net violations while hitting only .200 en route to a 30-18 loss in the final set. Their struggles were epitomized by middle blocker Tyler Jaynes, who swung and whiffed on an easy kill attempt to give the Cougars a 22-10 lead.

Appropriately, the match ended when Pepperdine setter Kasey Crider hit his serve into the net.

"I think they were a little discouraged after we played so well in the third set, and we took advantage," Lavaja said. "We got up big and it just worked out for us tonight."

Outside hitter Cory Riecks led the Waves with 17 kills, and former Cougar Rodnei Santos chipped in 11 kills while leading the team with a .529 hitting

percentage.

The two teams will meet again tonight at 7 p.m. at the Smith Fieldhouse.