BYU volleyball team young but talented

PROVO—When the No. 10-ranked BYU men's volleyball team plays its first home match of the 2009 season tonight against Cal Baptist at the Smith Fieldhouse, there may be some new faces out on the floor, but there also ought to be plenty of talent.

The Cougars opened the season on the road at the UC Santa Barbara/Elephant Bar Collegiate Invitational this past weekend without a single senior on the roster. During the offseason, all of BYU's starters except two moved on, leaving third-year coach Shawn Patchell with plenty of room for new talent to make their mark.

"As a coach ... you play with the cards you've been dealt," Patchell said. "We recruit our guys and so we can't complain too much. I really like our talent on our team and we've going to be good. For sure we miss Ivan (Perez) and Russell (Holmes) and Jon Charette and Brian Congalliere and Trent Sorensen ... but it's time for them to move on and for other guys to step up and be leaders of the team."

Last weekend, the Cougars lost to Stanford, ranked No. 4 to start this week, and UC Irvine, ranked No. 5, before sweeping Pacific 30-28, 30-18, 30-26.

Last year's team finished with a 25-5 record, losing to Pepperdine 3-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship match.

Junior outside hitter Andrew Stewart said there are plenty of talented players who are ready to slide in and play at outside hitter in place of departed All-American Perez.

"Someone's got to take his spot," Stewart said. "So, we've got me or Jeff (Robinson) or Kevin (Sagers) or Alex (Da Pron) — anyone can really take his spot. What's good about all our outside hitters is anyone can really go in."

One place Patchell doesn't have to worry about in terms of experience is at the libero position. Junior libero Joel Silva returns to BYU after spending the summer playing with the Venezuelan Senior National Team at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Silva finished in the top 20 in the nation in digs and digs per game.

Patchell said he feels good about his setter position with returning players like Reed Chilton and Yamil Perez.

The Cougars have two returning players in Kent Tuttle and Mat Taylor at opposite, and will feature redshirt freshman Futi Tavana at middle blocker, after he moved over from the outside hitter position.

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