It was a fight to the finish for the men's volleyball team as they narrowly escaped the paws of UVSC's wily wolverines at the season's inaugural match.

BYU's defending national champion team won all four matches played against the club division national champions in the exhibition game on Saturday, Jan. 5th.

Final scores of the matches were 30-27, 30-28, 30-28 and 30-26.

Although UVSC plays in the club division, BYU Coach Carl McGown said the Wolverines are always a good team for BYU to match up against.

Senior middleblocker and former All-American Mike Wall helped lead the Cougars to victory with 18 kills for the night.

"I was happy with the way I played, but we definitely have room for improvement," said Wall.

Improvement is what McGown was looking for after a frustrating night at the team's opening scrimmage Friday night, Jan. 4th, at BYU.

"I was disappointed on Friday," said McGown. "We didn't play very hard and we missed a lot of serves."

While McGown admits the season and several of the new team members are still fresh, he has high hopes for the remainder of the schedule.

Improvement might seem unnecessary after the team's triumph at nationals last year, but McGown is quick to remind that the team graduated three Middle-blockers and their star setter, Hector Lebron.

McGown said losing Lebron on the court has been a significant challenge, but new starting setter, junior Jeremiah Larsen, is developing well as a player.

"It takes time to get used to a new setter," said Wall. "I think he's playing great." The coaches are counting on the team to pull together as they face top-ranked Stanford this Friday and Saturday, Jan. 11th and 12th, at home.

McGown is positive about the upcoming season. "It's just going to take a while to get experienced, but as the season unfolds we're going to be terrific."