By Jonathan Andrus
After dropping their first match of the season, members of the top-ranked BYU men”s volleyball team decided they didn”t like losing very much.
After losing a tough match to USC, at the beginning of the year, the Cougars rebounded by beating No. 8 UC Santa Barbara and No. 2 Pepperdine over the weekend.
For only the second time this season, BYU needed all five game to get an important MPSF victory, coming from behind to beat Pepperdine on Saturday, March 3, 19-30, 38-36, 23-30, 30-23, 15-9 in front of 2,217 fans at the Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu, Calif.
The Cougars improve to 12-1 overall and maintain their hold on the MPSF Mountain Division lead with an 8-1 league record. With the loss, the Waves end a five-match winning streak and fall to 11-3 overall and drop to third place in the MPSF”s Mountain Division with a 6-3 league record.
With two wins, this marks the Cougars” seventh and eighth victories over top-15 opponents this season.
In the match against Peperdine, Junior Mike Wall led the Cougars with a match-high 29 kills, while Matt Olsen was the only other BYU player in double figures with 10 kills.
Luka Slabe, who has been playing huge lately, came off the bench to spark the Cougars, picking up seven kills, three aces, four blocks and a match-high 11 digs.
The Waves rolled to an easy 30-19 win in the first game as the Cougars hit a stiff .032, recording just 11 kills on 31 swings with 10 errors. The tide turned quickly in BYU”s favor in the second game, as the Cougars jumped out to a commanding 20-12 lead. Pepperdine crawled back into the game, notching things up at 29-29.
Both teams took turns serving for game point, but BYU eventually hung on for a thrilling 38-36 win.
The Cougars won the defensive battle, out-blocking Pepperdine by a slim 29-23 margin and out-digging the Waves, 47-36. The Waves recorded a season-best 16 service aces, while BYU produced just eight.
The Cougars return to Provo this week and will look to continue their 10-match home court win streak on Friday, March 9, taking on No. 13 Concordia (New York) at 7 p.m. (MST) in the Smith Fieldhouse.
