1 / 4

BYU's AJ Cottle takes a swing against Stanford in the quarterfinals of the MPSF Tournament at the Smith Fieldhouse on Wednesday, April 22, 2026.

Courtesy BYU Photo

2 / 4

The BYU men's volleyball team celebrates a point against Stanford in the quarterfinals of the MPSF Tournament at the Smith Fieldhouse on Wednesday, April 22, 2026.

Courtesy BYU Photo

3 / 4

BYU's Cole Hauser (24) celebrates a point against Stanford in the MPSF Tournament quarterfinals at the Smith Fieldhouse on Wednesday, April 22, 2026.

Courtesy BYU Photo

4 / 4

BYU's Cole Hauser (24) places the team placard on the MPSF Tournament bracket after beating Stanford 3-1 in the quarterfinals at the Smith Fieldhouse on Wednesday, April 22, 2026.

Courtesy BYU Photo

❮ ❯

The BYU men’s volleyball team came out on fire against Stanford in a 3-1 (25-18, 25-14, 23-25, 25-21) quarterfinal win at the MPSF Tournament, and freshman middle blocker AJ Cottle said the impressive performance was more than a month in the making.

The Cougars lost twice to Stanford in Palo Alto on March 13 and 14, and they were determined not to repeat that experience at the Smith Fieldhouse on Wednesday.

“That left a sour taste in our mouths, and so we’ve been planning on playing them,” Cottle said. “We were more excited to play this game, I think, more than any other game this season. So that was a good time come out hot, right?”

Cottle certainly did his part by dominating at the net, posting 10 kills and zero errors on 13 swings (.768) and adding nine block assists.

“As much as those losses hurt, it gave us a lot to look at,” Cottle said. “It changed our perspective of our own team, and we were able to fix a lot of the things that we needed to. So much of the development that we’ve had over the last month of practice was thanks to that visit to Stanford.”

Another key development for BYU was head coach Shawn Olmstead opting to start Cole Hauser at outside hitter. It was Hauser’s first career start for the Cougars and the 6-foot-3 senior was electric, finishing with nine kills and nine digs.

“I felt like there have been moments when things didn’t go well, and our outsides, they kind of shut down a little,” Olmstead said. “I just knew that Cole, how he is every day at practice, he has no fear, and he just goes for it.”

Cottle added: “Cole brings so much to our team, and no one has been able to see that all season. He’s come in spurts, like a serving sub, but his energy is constantly high. In practice, he raises the level to a degree where we can all get better, and this last two weekends, he’s been able to show the world why he deserves to be on the court. His leadership as a senior, he sees the game so well and raises the level with his confidence and his energy.”

Connor Oldani topped BYU with 13 kills and hit .290. Setter Tyler Herget contributed 43 assists and 10 digs, leading the Cougars to a .327 hitting percentage.

Alex Rottman and Moses Wagner topped the Cardinal with 12 kills each but hit just .147 and .167, respectively.

BYU jumped all over Stanford from the start. A 5-0 run, keyed by three straight blocks, pushed the Cougars to a 13-7 lead in Set 1. It was 17-9 after an ace from Trevor Herget but the Cardinal managed to trim the deficit to three at 20-17. But Cottle took over down the stretch, with three kills, the last one giving BYU a 25-18 win.

The Cougars had five blocks in the first set and Houser finished with three kills.

BYU went on another 5-0 burst in Set 2, highlighted by back-to-back blocks from Cottle, to take an early 12-5 lead. Moser tipped over the block for a 18-9 advantage and it was 20-10 when Oldani fired off an ace. Hauser flew out of the back row for the final point of a 25-14 rout in a set where the Cougars hit .579 and held the Cardinal to .000.

Stanford got comfortable offensively in the third set and led 12-9. The set was tied at 21 after the Cardinal won a video challenge, then got to 24-22. Moser’s kill closed the gap to 24-23 but Wagner fired down an out-of-system kill for the winner at 25-23.

BYU got momentum in Set 3 with back-to-back blocks for a 7-5 lead and stretched that to 12-8 on another Hauser kill. A triple block from Hauser, Cottle and Gavin Chambers made the score 21-16, followed by a Cottle kill at 22-16.

Stanford fought off a couple of match points but finally served into the net and BYU took the set 25-21 and the match.

BYU had a 13 total blocks, a season high, and held the Cardinal to a .200 hitting percentage.

“We’ve been talking to these guys over and over trying to be our best at the end, when you need it,” Olmstead said. “Our middle were really getting over and across the net, not high, but across. And Stanford had a lot of trouble with that. That really rattled them.”

In earlier quarterfinal action, No. 2 Pepperdine swept No. 7 Jessup (25-19, 25-21, 25-22), No. 3 USC swept No. 6 Vanguard (25-19, 25-13, 25-21) and top-seed UCLA swept No. 8 Concordia (25-23, 25-15, 25-19).

BYU (21-11) will take on No. 1-ranked UCLA (27-1) in one of Thursday’s semifinals at 7:30 p.m. The other semifinal serves at 5 p.m. with No. 2 Pepperdine (23-5) taking on No. 3 USC (18-6).