1 / 6

BYU's Teilon-Jonathan Tufuga (9) celebrates a point during a men's college volleyball match against UC Irvine at the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday, Jan, 24, 2026.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

2 / 6

BYU's Teilon-Johnathan Tufuga takes a swing during a men's college volleyball match against UC Irvine at the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday, Jan, 24, 2026.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

3 / 6

BYU's Connor Oldani (left) and Gavin Chambers put up a block during a men's college volleyball match against UC Irvine at the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday, Jan, 24, 2026.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

4 / 6

BYU's AJ Cottle (left) and Trent Moser put up a block during a men's college volleyball match against UC Irvine at the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday, Jan, 24, 2026.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

5 / 6

BYU's Jackson Fife digs a ball during a men's college volleyball match against UC Irvine at the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday, Jan, 24, 2026.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

6 / 6

BYU's Teilon-Jonathan Tufuga takes a swing during a men's college volleyball match against UC Irvine at the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday, Jan, 24, 2026.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

❮ ❯

For nearly two-and-a-half hours, the No. 8 BYU men’s volleyball team thrilled the capacity crowd at the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday.

It was the final ten minutes that broke their hearts.

The Cougars dominated and won the first two sets against No. 5 UC Irvine, and after the Anteaters rallied to win the next two, BYU led 10-5 and 12-8 in the fifth set.

But the Cougars couldn’t finish the deal, surrendering a stunning 7-1 UCI run in a crushing 3-2 (25-16, 25-21, 24-26, 25-23, 13-15) reverse sweep loss.

“I probably said it 20 times in a row (in the locker room),” said a clearly frustrated BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead. “This one is really going to sting. We had what we needed, we really did.”

The heartbreak continued on Saturday, with UC Irvine beating BYU in five sets again.

Connor Oldani was terrific to open Set 5, notching five kills as the Cougars jumped out to a 10-5 lead. It was 12-8 when BYU freshman Trevor Herget soared out of the back row for a kill and the hyped-up home crowd prepared for a big finish.

But UC Irvine suddenly started to dominate at the net, scoring three critical points by smothering Cougar attacks. With the set tied at 13, the Anteaters got a middle kill from Trevor Clark to get to match point. Teilon-Jonathan Tufuga, who led BYU with 18 kills, was roofed on his swing to bring a sudden end to the match.

“You’ve just got to continue to play aggressive, assertive, good volleyball, hitting in the frame of the court, high with heat,” Olmstead said. “They (UCI) are a good team, we know that. But we just had a handful of errors. I don’t want to say we got tentative, but I know there were some moments there down the stretch that we could have capitalized on.

“I don’t want to call it a panic, but man, we definitely played a little level lower down the stretch. And you can’t do that at this level. You’ve got to be assertive and confident.”

Tufuga’s 18 kills was a career-high, though he did lead the Cougars with eight errors. Oldani finished with a career-best 17 kills (.424) and Trent Moser added 12 kills (.409). Middle Gavin Chambers had eight block assists, a career high as well.

UC Irvine freshman Andrej Jokanovic had 19 kills and hit .435 for the visitors, with William D’Arcy contributing 16 kills. Clark was unstoppable from the middle, crushing 13 kills on 20 swings with zero errors (.650).

BYU had the edge in hitting percentage (.355 to .322) and blocks (11-7) but but four of UCI’s blocks came in the fifth set.

“I’ll take my guys all day and all night,” Olmstead said. “But you should fully embrace the opportunity to just get after it at the highest level from start to finish. Carl (McGown) used to always tells us, there are no little things (in volleyball). You just can’t make those mistakes down the stretch. You can go, ‘It’s just a little pass, a little touch,’ but no. That’s a big deal.”

UC Irvine came into the match hitting .425 in its first five matches but the Cougars dominated in Set 1, holding the Anteaters to a .103 mark. Tufugu and Oldani had three kills each as BYU won easily. In Set 2, Herget highlighted the Cougars effort with a great defensive dig and smash out of the back row for a 22-17 lead. Freshman middle AJ Cottle got the final two kills and BYU led the match 2-0.

The Cougars hadn’t trailed in either of the first two sets but UC Irvine started to find its offensive groove and played from ahead in the third and fourth sets. Both were close but the Anteaters were better at closing things out to force the fifth and final set.

“I think we played well,” said senior setter Tyler Herget, who finished with 54 assists. “I thing we were muscleing it up at the net and it just wasn’t going our way. I think we just need to keep being physical at the net.”

Saturday’s match

No. 5 UC Irvine 3, No. 8 BYU 2

The Cougars dropped the first two sets to the Anteaters on Saturday but rallied to win the next two to force another fifth set. UCI took control midway through the set and won 15-10, claiming a 3-2 (25-17, 26-24, 23-25, 23-25, 15-10) victory.

BYU kept Jokavanic from going off (14 kills, .194 hitting percentage) but D’Arcy had 22 kills (.462) and Clark added 11 more on 16 swings with just one error (.625).

Oldani paced the Cougars with 22 kills (.349) and added two aces, four digs and four block assists. Moser had 14 kills but hit just .132 (nine errors). Olmstead eventually turned to Grand Canyon transfer Kyle Zediker at setter, and he produced 29 assists.

BYU (4-2) plays at UC Santa Barbara on Thursday and Friday.