On top and undefeated, the BYU men's volleyball team held its position this weekend in the BYU Preseason Tournament, defeating UC Irvine Saturday night in four sets and earning the Tournament Champion title. The Cougars also swept Utah Valley University in three quick sets Saturday morning.

At the conclusion of the final match, redshirt freshman Futi Tavana was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player and was honored as a member of the All-Tournament team. Fellow Cougar Kent Tuttle joined Tavana on the team.

"Futi did extremely well this weekend," BYU head coach Shawn Patchell said in a news release. "Two months ago he was an opposite and I didn't even know if he'd make the team. I decided to experiment and move him to middle blocker and it's really paid off. I'm ecstatic he's found his niche."

BYU beat UC Irvine 28-30, 30-27, 30-27, 30-28 after falling in set one because of Cougar errors. Junior outside hitter Andrew Stewart tallied a team-high 24 kills against the Anteaters, while Tavana led BYU with five blocks and junior libero Joel Silva came away with 11 digs.

In set two, BYU led until UCI tied it up at 7 when the Anteaters' Cole Reinholm blocked a Cougar kill. UCI tied the set once again at 24, but the Cougars were able to pull ahead for the 30-27 win.

BYU jumped ahead early in set three with a 7-1 lead, the largest lead by either team for the night. Even though the Anteaters put up a good fight, BYU's Stewart proved too much for UCI as he continued to dominate. BYU took the third match 30-27 on a UCI service error.

The two teams continued to trade points in the fourth set until a kill from BYU's Kevin Sagers tied the score at 21-21. A huge block by Tavana and kill from Stewart pushed the Cougars ahead 28-25. With match point on the line, Sagers delievered the winning kill to win it 30-28.

"I'm proud of the way our team responded to that loss in the first set," Patchell said. "We came out and improved a lot with our unforced errors and showed good consistency on the court."

Saturday morning BYU defeated UVU 30-22, 30-23, 30-24.

In the morning match against the Wolverines, junior setter Reed Chilton's serving skills provided much needed boosts at the beginning of each set. With kills from Jeff Robinson, Matt Taylor and Tavana, the Cougars pulled away from UVU for the victory.

"This weekend was definitely good for me," Tavana said. "I have a lot to improve on, but the support from my coaches and teammates has really helped my confidence."

With the preseason over, the Cougars will resume play when they travel to the UC Santa Barbara E-Bar Tournament Jan. 9-10. BYU is scheduled to play Stanford in its opening match of the tournament.



Copyright Brigham Young University 8 Dec 2008