PROVO, Utah - The University of California San Diego was swept by No. 3 Brigham Young University in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) men's volleyball action Friday night at Smith Fieldhouse. Set scores were 25-21, 26-24 and 25-23.
With a third consecutive defeat, all in straight sets, on the heels of five wins in a row, UC San Diego drops to 5-8 overall and 2-7 in the MPSF. The Tritons are indeed receiving votes just outside of the national top-15 poll this week for the first time since January of 2014. BYU moves to 11-2 overall and 6-1 in league play.
The Tritons led as late as 13-12 in the opening set and 22-21 in game two, but the home side prevailed in both. They then inched to within one at 24-23 in the third with three straight, but the Cougars managed to convert their fourth match point.
"If you look at the statistics from the match tonight, we did a lot of good things," remarked UCSD head coach Kevin Ring. "We hit .324 to .348 by BYU, had 7.5 stuff blocks to 6.0, and 24 digs to their 20. In the end, the big difference was they had 10 more kills than us, and eight more points on the night. We did a lot of good things, but for us to win a set, get a second and try to win the match, we have to play some of the key points a little bit stronger."
Opposite and team tri-captain Tanner Syftestad led UCSD with 13 kills, hitting .333 (13-4-27) with four digs, two aces, two blocks and an assist. Fellow junior Milosh Stojcic finished with 29 assists, four digs and a kill. Fourth-year senior Shayne Beamer earned his first start since Jan. 14 at a middle blocker spot, and provided four kills and three total blocks.
Ian Colbert and freshman libero Ryan Lew collected eight kills and a match-high seven digs, respectively. Senior outside hitter Josh Schmidt made his 2017 debut as a late-game substitute in both the second and third, having recovered from injury.
Jake Langlois had a match-high 17 kills for BYU at a .353 (17-5-34) attack rate. Storm Fa'agata joined him in double figures at 10 while hitting .471 (10-2-17), with a team-high five digs and identical two aces. Setter Leo Durkin had 33 assists.
"We didn't slow their left-side attackers down very well," added Ring. "They both hit very well with good efficiencies and a lot of kills. That will be a focus of ours tomorrow when we play them again."
UCSD scored the first three points of the night and was up by as many as four at 11-7 in the initial frame. The Cougars broke a third and final tie score, of 14-14, with three points in a row.
"We got off to a good start in the first set, and were up 11-7. Unfortunately, within two servers by BYU, they had tied the score at 12-12. You do all of this work to establish a lead, and we have to be able to hold onto that a little longer. Certainly you credit BYU for making some good plays and getting themselves back in it, but there are things that we can do to sustain some runs and get the key sideout when we need it."
The Tritons hit a strong .550 (13-2-20) in game two, which featured 16 tie scores and six lead changes. A 3-0 mini-run, with a Bryan Zhu (San Diego/Rancho Bernardo HS) kill preceding Syftestad's two aces, gave them a 5-3 edge early. A second 3-0 stretch, on a Beamer kill, Cougar error and combination block by Beamer and Syftestad, pushed UCSD back on top, 10-8. The set continued in the tightest of manner, with a 3-0 run giving the home side the edge at 19-18, only for the score to be knotted six more times. Finally at 24-24, back-to-back Langlois kills ended it.
BYU notched set three's first two points and never trailed and was never tied. The Cougars were up 10-5 at UCSD's first timeout. The Tritons gradually caught up at 20-19, a Devin Pontigon (Oceanside/El Camino HS) kill punctuating a 3-0 run and forcing a BYU timeout. After the sides traded single points, the Cougars tallied the next three to push it to match point at 24-20. To UCSD's credit, it took the next three on kills by Syftestad and Schmidt, his first, and a triple stuff by Schmidt, Syftestad and Zhu. After their second timeout, the Cougars responded with a Langlois kill.
UC San Diego remains in Utah for a second matchup with the Cougars, this one of the non-conference variety, on Saturday, Feb. 18. First serve inside Smith Fieldhouse is set for 5 p.m. PT (6 p.m. MT), with the contest airing live to a national television audience on BYUtv.
"Again, we did a lot of good things, but sometimes, a lot of good things only gets you close. We're not in the business of trying to be close. We're trying to win sets and turn that into a match. We've got our work cut out for us tomorrow, but the guys are real focused, and I think we'll have a real nice performance come Saturday night."
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