March 3, 2007

Box Score

Yosleyder Cala had 19 kills and Robby Stowell added 17 kills to guide the No. 3-ranked BYU men's volleyball team to a 30-22, 30-22, 30-25 sweep over No. 12 USC in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Saturday (March 3) in USC's Galen Center.

BYU, which also beat the Trojans on Friday (March 2) in 4 games, improved to 13-4 overall and 9-3 in the MPSF. It was the Cougars 12th consecutive victory over USC, which fell to 6-11 and 5-9.

Cala hit .905 in the match, with no errors on 21 attempts. He also had 5 digs and 2 aces. Stowell hit .727 with just 1 error among his 22 swings. He also had a match-best 5 blocks. Teammate Ivan Perez added 9 kills (hitting .615) and a match-leading 8 digs, while Russell Holmes hit .600 with 7 kills.

BYU hit .571 to USC's .293. The Cougars also had more digs (28 to 15) and blocks (8.0 to 5.0).

For the Trojans, Juan Figueroa had 18 kills and Andrew Vernon had 9 kills while hitting .471.

In the first game, BYU turned an 8-6 deficit into a 10-8 lead and steadily pulled away while hitting .571. It was more of the same in the second game as the Cougars never trailed after starting with a 2-0 lead (they hit .500). Not even a change of setters by USC to open the third game-Gio Altamura replaced a gimpy Jimmy Killian, who was knocked out of Friday's match with an ankle sprain-could slow BYU, as the Cougars opened up a 12-7 lead and were never threatened while hitting at a .655 clip.

USC next plays its first-ever match against non-conference foe Quincy on Thursday (March 8) at 7 p.m. in the Galen Center.