BYU volleyball: Cougars sweep Northridge to advance

LONG BEACH, Calif. — The BYU men's volleyball team moved one step closer to reaching the NCAA Final Four as the third-ranked Cougars swept fourth-ranked Cal State-Northridge in Thursday's semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament.

BYU (25-4) downed the Matadors 30-22, 30-28, 30-26, advancing to Saturday's MPSF championship match against upset-minded Pepperdine (15-10). The tournament champion earns the MPSF's automatic Final Four berth.

The fifth-ranked and fifth-seeded Waves ambushed fourth-seeded UCLA in last weekend's quarterfinals and then shocked Long Beach — the 49ers were ranked second, seeded first and hosting the semis and finals — with a 3-0 upset in Thursday's opening MPSF semifinal.

BYU beat Pepperdine twice in Provo during the regular season. The Cougars now have won eight straight matches after dropping two last month against Long Beach State at Walter Pyramid, site of the MPSF Tournament.

Outside hitter Ivan Perez, opposite Jonathan Charette and middle blocker Russell Holmes combined for 36 kills — 16 by Perez while hitting .345, 11 by Charette at a .333 clip and nine by Holmes, who besides a scintillating .800 percentage also added three aces and seven blocks.

As a team, BYU hit .368, compared to CSUN's .239.

In the opening set, BYU jumped out to a 5-1 lead, aided by a Perez service ace, en route to an easy 30-22 victory. Perez logged six kills on nine swings as the Cougars outhit the Matadors .393 to .000.

CSUN posted its only lead of the night by claiming the first point of the second set before BYU rallied with five straight points for another 5-1 start. The Matadors pulled within one four times, the last at 26-25.

The Cougars claimed the second 30-28 despite being outhit .424 to .231, but BYU had three service aces — two by Holmes — while Northridge committed a dozen service errors.

BYU never trailed in the third and final set, although CSUN pulled even at 15-all and was within one at 25-24. But the Cougars scored five of the final seven points to win the set and match.

The Cougars had tied Long Beach State for first in the MPSF regular-season standings, but the 49ers' 2-0 season series advantage over Brigham Young gave LBSU the tournament's top seed and hosting rights and dropped BYU to the No. 2 seed.

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