BYU men’s volleyball sweeps Santa Barbara in first road match of season

The No. 8 BYU men’s volleyball team swept No. 15 UC Santa Barbara 3-0 Thursday night in its first road match of the season.

Coming off their first losses of the season, the Cougars entered Friday’s match with intensity, fighting to beat the Gauchos in three straight sets (25-22, 25-18, 26-24).

Trent Moser and Connor Oldani led the way offensively for the Cougars, recording 10 kills each, with Oldani hitting .455 with no errors.

In his second career start, freshman Max Philippe had a career-high three kills and a match-high three blocks.

Teilon-Jonathan Tufuga picked up seven kills and a match-high three aces.

BYU was without its star freshman middle blocker, AJ Cottle, who is currently sidelined after an injury suffered in a match last weekend.

The Cougars were also without one of their assistant coaches, Devin Young, who was recently announced to be taking the reigns of the Pacific men's volleyball program.

Despite the setbacks, BYU came into the match with focus and determination to win.

The Cougars started the night off strong and led for the majority of the first two sets (25-22, 25-18).

The Gauchos fought to make a comeback and pulled ahead in the third set. The Cougars came back to tie the set 19-19, creating a back-and-forth battle until kills from Oldani and Tyler Herget sealed the win for BYU (26-24).

In the end, the Cougars outhit the Gauchos .325 to .176.

BYU started the season with four straight wins against Saint Francis and No. 10 UC San Diego. Last weekend, BYU lost both matches in five-set thrillers to No. 5 UC Irvine.

Thursday night's bounce-back for the Cougars brings their record to 5-2.

These two teams will meet up again in Santa Barbara on Friday night at 8 p.m. MST on ESPN+.