The top-ranked BYU men’s volleyball team needed five sets to knock off UC Santa Barbara, defeating the Gauchos 3-2 in front of more than 3,000 fans in the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday night.
BYU never trailed in the fifth set after dropping the third and fourth to UCSB.
“(I’m) really proud of the guys for playing through a tough stretch and gutting it out in the fifth,” said BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead. “We knew after winning the first two sets that Santa Barbara wasn’t going to make it easy for us.”
Ben Patch finished with 32 kills for the Cougars, while Brenden Sander added 19 and Jake Langlois added 12. BYU hit .388 on the night.
The Cougars will play UCLA on Saturday in the MPSF tournament finals. BYU is 2-0 against UCLA this season, winning both matches 3-1.
