The UCLA men's volleyball team, although it was ranked No. 3 in the nation, might not be as good as it has been in previous years with only three seniors on the roster in 2007.

It certainly didn't have its best weekend in Provo.

After opening the two-match set with a sweep Friday night, BYU dominated the first two games then held off a Bruin charge in Game No. 3 to get its second straight 3-0 win (30-21, 30-23, 33-31).

"Any time you beat UCLA 6-0, it's a great accomplishment," said Cougar co-head coach Ryan Millar. "You try to prepare for the other team's tendencies and I thought it was a nice adjustment by everybody. We did really well tonight."

Freshman outside hitter Robby Stowell, who led the team with 19 kills, said it was another goal the team wanted to reach.

"UCLA is a great team, coming in ranked No. 3," he said. "But one of our goals was to be perfect at home. I think we sent a message to the rest of the conference that we're good and ready to play."

The third and final game of the match turned out to be far and away the most competitive contest. After the Cougars built an early 7-3 advantage, the Bruins roared back to take a 17-15 lead.

"We knew they were going to come out and play better," Millar said. "They didn't want to get embarrassed up here."

The two teams traded points for much of the rest of the game, with BYU having the first opportunity to end the match when it went up 29-28.

But UCLA wasn't done yet. The Bruins got a big kill from sophomore middle blocker Jamie Diefenbach and an ace by freshman outside hitter Garrett Muagututia to take control.

The Cougars proceeded to stave off two game points for UCLA before scoring three straight, two off Bruin mistakes, to seal the victory.

"During a timeout we just looked at each other and said, 'let's go!' " Stowell said. "We picked up the energy. We practice hard so we know when times are hard, we can dig deep and get things done."

The home team started the match by demonstrating its power. BYU hit an impressive .519 in the opening game and built a double-digit lead before UCLA scored a couple of late points to reach 21. That was all the Bruins could manage before a hitting error ended the game.

Game No. 2 seemed to follow the same pattern: The Cougars going in front, then cruising to victory, this time finishing off the 30-23 game with a big kill from freshman middle blocker Rodnei Santos.

"We had great synergy on the floor," Stowell said. "We were playing with each other so well that it felt like we had seven or eight players on the floor. Everyone had each other's backs. When you play like that, you can play your game and dominate."

BYU hit .367 for the match and held the visitors to just a .208 hitting percentage.

"We did a good job getting after their outside hitters," Millar said. "Those three finished with a very low percentage and I think that's a testament to our defense."

The Cougars will try to remain undefeated when they head to Stanford to take on the Cardinal next weekend.

Jared Lloyd can be reached at 344-2552 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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