The Cougars celebrate after scoring a point earlier this season. BYU defeated CSUN on Thursday and Friday night. (BYU Photo)
The BYU men's volleyball team beat the No. 14 CSUN Matadors Thursday (23-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-15) and Friday night (26-24, 25-15, 22-25, 26-24) with big nights from Ben Patch and Mitchel Worthington. Both games were won in four sets.
Thursday night's win can be attributed to a big night from Patch with 16 kills and Erik Sikes' nine digs. This was Sikes' first match of the season after returning from injury.
“What a great team effort and win,” head coach Shawn Olmstead said. “I'm so proud of how the entire team responded after going down a set. They battled and stayed very composed throughout the match.”
Price Jarman hit a .455 hitting clip and Kiril Meretev collected nine kills for a .571 clip Thursday night.
Friday night had a different story to tell. Worthington came out of the game strong with 14 digs, a career high. Patch had a season high of 24 kills and a .415 hitting clip.
'We had another great win tonight,' Olmstead said Friday night. 'Each one of these kids showed heart and fight. I'm proud of the way they battled back to take the first and fourth sets.'
The Matadors were up 22-18 in the first, but a 5-0 run from the Cougars got them back in the game winning 26-24. The fourth set, CSUN came out strong after their 25-22 win with a 6-1 lead. BYU fought to be 9-9 following a kill from Leo Durkin. The Matadors went up 24-23, but a 3-0 run gave Cougars the victory.
BYU will face UC Irvine next weekend in the Smith Feildhouse.