By Ashlyn Hewlett

The No. 4 BYU men’s volleyball team finally returns home after a month-long road trip to take on No. 1 Pepperdine this weekend at the Smith Fieldhouse.

BYU (9-6, 7-5 MPSF) is coming off a tough weekend against No. 8 Hawaii. Last Friday’s match was hard-fought by both teams, eventually ending in a five-set loss for the Cougars.

Because of tsunami warnings from the earthquake in Chile, Saturday’s match was postponed until Monday. The Warriors dominated the match, sweeping the Cougars 3-0 and claiming both wins on the weekend.

Robb Stowell led the Cougars with 18 kills on Friday and three other Cougars recorded double-digit kills.

The Cougars are now ranked fifth in the conference, having a 4-5 record against top-10 ranked teams this season.

“Since we didn’t play well in Hawaii, these are very important (games),” head coach Shawn Patchell said. “This is our conference. If you win you could be in first place, if you drop a couple you might not make the playoffs. I think we should win two and be right back on top of the heap again.”

Pepperdine is on an eight-match winning streak after beating Grand Canyon and No. 5 Cal State Northridge last week. These two wins and other losses throughout the conference made it possible for Pepperdine to take sole possession of first place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. 

Playing big for the Waves is outside hitter J.D. Schleppenbach. Schleppenbach had a career-high 24 kills and 17 digs against Northridge. He was also named the MPSF co-player of the week on Monday after averaging 4.71 kills, 3.71 digs and 5.29 points over last week’s matches.

Pepperdine leads the all-time series between the two schools 26-19, but the Cougars have won six of the past seven matches in Provo. When the two schools met last year, they split the weekend series, with each team claiming a 3-1 win in California.

BYU plays Pepperdine today and Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. Live video will be available at byu.tv today and BYU All-Access on Saturday (all-access.cbssports.com). Live stats will also be available at the BYU men’s volleyball schedule page at byucougars.com.