PROVO, Utah  ?The 10th-ranked UC San Diego men's volleyball team lost to No. 9 BYU 30-28, 30-18, 30-17 on Saturday night in Provo, Utah.  UCSD had a chance to take the first set leading by as many as five points late, but the Cougars rallied to score the set's final five points.  UCSD was led by Frank Fritsch with 10 kills on .381 hitting.  Will Ehrman had nine kills while Eric Leserman had seven digs.  Phil Bannan had 32 assists and five digs.  With the loss, UCSD drops to 6-8, 2-7 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, while the Cougars improve to 7-6, 5-3 MPSF.

In the first set with the score tied at 10-10, UCSD scored three straight points to go ahead 13-10 after a Phil Bannan and Gerald Houseman block.  UCSD would up its lead to 17-12 after consecutive BYU errors.  After the Cougars trimmed the lead down to 17-15, the Tritons opened up a five point lead at 20-15 and continued to side out with BYU as the score became 24-19.  The Tritons would keep at least a three point lead until 28-25.  BYU responded with a block and a UCSD error made the UCSD lead down to 28-27 and the Tritons called timeout.  Out of the timeout, the Cougars continued their run by scoring the last three points out of the timeout, ending the set on a 5-0 run and taking the set 30-28.

In the second set, the Tritons fell behind early by a 10-5 score.  A Jason Spangler kill pulled the Tritons within 12-11, but the Cougars went on a 6-0 run to take an 18-11 advantage.  The Cougars would cruise to the 30-18 set two win.

In the third set, the Cougars jumped out to a 15-8 lead, forcing the Tritons to call timeout.  BYU continued to pull away and led 20-9 and would cruise to the 30-17 win.

UCSD is back in action next week when it returns home to host UC Irvine on Wednesday night in RIMAC Arena.