BYU men’s volleyball lost to top-ranked UCLA in four sets (20-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-18) in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament semifinals at Smith Fieldhouse on April 23.
The loss ended BYU’s streak of sixteen consecutive home wins in the MPSF Tournament, a run that dated back to their last tournament loss at home in 2011. The result highlights UCLA’s standing as the number one team and advances them to the championship match against USC.
BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead said after the match, “We were right where we needed to be with our game plan. Our guys executed well and came out the right way. They stayed steady and made good decisions. Defensively, we did everything that first set, and then it just became too much. From our serving, finishing without an ace, you can’t expect to compete with an offense like that. You have to find ways to manufacture points on your side, and we didn’t.”
The Cougars started strong by winning the first set but were unable to maintain momentum as UCLA controlled play for the remainder of the match. Tyler Herget recorded twenty-nine assists during the game, moving into fifth place all-time for career assists at BYU with a total of two thousand eight hundred fourteen.
Trent Moser and Connor Oldani each contributed ten kills for BYU; Moser had a .600 hitting percentage while Oldani finished at .231. Cole Hauser added six kills and both Gavin Chambers and AJ Cottle tallied five blocks apiece.
Looking ahead, UCLA will face USC in Saturday’s championship match while BYU concludes its season following this semifinal defeat.
