The ease in which the second-ranked BYU men's volleyball team dispatched of No. 3 UCLA last week in the Smith Fieldhouse has Cougar fans asking, "Just how good are wefi"

If winning six straight games and two matches against the defending national champions did anything, it raised expectations.

BYU (4-0 overall, 2-0 MPSF) travels to Stanford for matches against the winless Cardinal today and Saturday. Both matches are at 8 p.m. Mountain Time.

"We can't look past Stanford," BYU co-head coach Shawn Patchell said. "It's tough to play a team on their home turf. They have a new coach (John Kosty) but he's been an assistant there for a long time. Matt Ceran is a 6-foot-6 outside hitter who can pass and he's very athletic. They're young but they have some very good recruits."

Stanford lost all three matches in the UCSB/Elephant Bar Tournament, falling to UC Irvine 3-0, Long Beach State 3-2 and USC 3-2 to start the season. The Cardinal dropped its first two MPSF matches to Northridge (3-1) and UCSB (3-0). Ceran had a season-high 21 kills in the loss to Long Beach State and freshman opposite Evan Romero matched him with 21 kills against USC.

Meanwhile, BYU rolled over UCLA with an effective serve game and by making some good adjustments to the Bruins' outside hitters.

"It really pleased me that we served less than four errors a game," Patchell said. "It worked out to 10 serving errors and four aces, and that's phenomenal. We'll take that anytime."

Patchell said he and co-coach Ryan Millar were also pleased with how freshman opposite Robby Stowell and freshman setter Yamil Perez adjusted their blocking to neutralize UCLA's Paul George. On Friday, George led the Bruins with 15 kills and hit over .700; on Saturday, BYU held George to just seven kills and a hitting percentage of .167.

BYU's depth is playing a big role early in the season. Sophomore Yosleyder Cala led BYU with 15 kills and hit .789 in the first match against UCLA. On Saturday Cala was late to a team meeting so freshman Andrew Stewart got the start again. Stewart struggled offensively but passed the ball well. The two continued to battle for playing time this week in practice.

"We think we're very good with Cala coming off the bench," Patchell said. "It's a win-win for us to have that available because we can get a freshman on the floor with Cala ready to come in."

Also, junior Brian Congelliere will get his first start at setter against Stanford. Patchell said the decision was based on a strong week of practice by Congelliere. Perez started the first four matches for BYU.

"That kind of depth is really important," Patchell said. "A lot of time our 'B' team beats our 'A' team and it's good we can reward those guys with playing time when that happens."

After the Stanford matches, BYU travels to Hawaii for the Outrigger Tournament and will play 2006 national runner-up Penn State and Loyola-Chicago. On Feb. 2 and 3, BYU hosts UC Irvine in what could be a No. 2 vs. No. 1 matchup.

Daily Herald Sports Editor Darnell Dickson can be reached at 344-2555 or by e-mail at ddickson@heraldextra.com

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This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C2.