PROVO, Utah - The UC San Diego men's volleyball team was beaten by No. 7 Brigham Young University, 3-0, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday night. Set scores were 25-18, 25-17 and 25-18.
UCSD dropped to 1-7 overall and 0-5 in the MPSF. BYU moved to 5-2 overall and 4-1 in league play. The contest was played in front of 3,415 fans and televised live nationally on BYUtv.
Freshman setter Milosh Stojcic had 24 assists and guided the Tritons to a season-high hitting percentage of .240 (31-13-75). He also contributed a pair of kills on three attempts, and three digs. Luke La Mont, another true freshman making his second start at outside hitter, led UCSD with a match- and career-high 12 kills. Junior tri-captain Tanner Howard served as the primary libero for the Tritons for the first time this season, and finished with a match-best 11 digs.
La Mont's first two kills gave UCSD a quick 2-1 lead in the opening set. A 3-0 run featuring kills by La Mont and Ian Colbert pushed the Tritons ahead 5-2 moments later. A 6-0 Cougar stretch then turned a 6-3 deficit into a 9-6 advantage, with UCSD not able to catch up again.
The Tritons tallied the first point in both of the remaining two games, but each frame featured just two tie scores early on before the hosts eventually gained the upper hand to complete the sweep.
UCSD's only block of the match came from La Mont and sophomore middle Shayne Beamer for 2-0 in the third. A four-point stretch by BYU flipped a 3-1 Triton lead into a 5-3 Cougar edge. UCSD cut into a 16-12 deficit midway through thanks to a BYU service error, La Mont kill, and Tanner Syftestad's second ace of the set. The Cougars immediately tallied the next three, however, and held on from there.
Brenden Sander provided a team-high nine kills for the Cougars off the bench. Phil Fuchs had seven kills, an ace, and a team-best four digs. Joe Grosh got his hands to four blocks, and Robbie Sutton, a San Diego product out of Rancho Bernardo High School, dished out 25 assists. BYU attacked at a formidable .506 rate (50-6-87), with 50 kills among the 75 points it registered on the night. The hit percentage was easily the high for a Triton opponent thus far in 2015, with .396 the previous best.
UCSD and BYU round out their two-match season series back at the Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday, Jan. 31. First serve is again set for 6 p.m. PT (7 p.m. MT).
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