The men's volleyball team hopes to claim the second seed in the upcoming conference tournament following UCLA's losses to Hawaii over the weekend.

To do that the Cougars must defeat the UC San Diego Tritons today and Wednesday before heading to Hawaii to finish the season against the Warriors on Friday and Saturday.

After sweeping UC Santa Barbara a little more than a week ago, the rested Cougars feel they are up to the challenge of a four game road trip in a period of five days.

"We've been practicing hard and short to give our bodies a chance to heal," said sophomore middle blocker Chris Gorny. "As far as mentally we're doing real good."

Coach Carl McGown said the Tritons play hard and play well, but they suffer because the school does not offer volleyball scholarships.

"They don't have any scholarships so they are at a tremendous disadvantage," McGown said. "It's really hard to put a nice team on the floor, but their coach has done a nice job."

The Tritons are currently 6-21 and in last place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Conference. Sophomore outside hitter Jim Waller is the Tritons leading attacker with 371 kills on the season, an average of 4.91 kills per game.

"UCSD has some real good athletes, but without scholarships it's hard to be a good team," Gorny said.

The Cougars believe the matches against UCSD will be a good opportunity to prepare for the matches against Hawaii later in the week.

"If we do a nice job and get excited and get going those two games won't be too demanding, it will be a chance to get sweaty," McGown said.

Senior libero Mike Wilton said going to San Diego will be good for the team.

"We will be able to adjust to sea level in San Diego before heading to Hawaii," he said. "Also having the weekend off was nice, we got to relax a little bit."

The Cougars are 10-0 all-time against the Tritons since they began playing one another in 1993. BYU has only lost one game to the Tritons - it happened in 1993 - and has swept the last nine matches.

The Cougars also set a team record last year against the Tritons, as they served seven aces, a single match record. Sophomore outside hitter Jonathon Alleman had five of those, which is another team record.

The Cougars and Tritons square off today and Wednesday in San Diego at 7 p.m. P.D.T. The team will then fly to Hawaii on Thursday to prepare for the Friday and Saturday matches.



Copyright Brigham Young University 9 Apr 2002