SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Bouncing back from two heartbreaking losses last weekend, No. 8 BYU picked up a 3-0 sweep (25-22, 25-18, 26-24) over No. 15 UC Santa Barbara Thursday night on the road.

Trent Moser and Connor Oldani led the Cougars (5-2 overall) offensively with 10 kills each, with Oldani hitting .455 with no errors. Freshman middle blocker Max Philippe picked up a career-high three kills and and match-high three blocks in his second-career start. Teilon-Jonathan Tafuga had a match-high three aces. Tyler Herget and Jackson Fife both had six digs to lead BYU in that category. BYU outhit UCSD .325 to .176.

The Cougars were blocked on the first point of the match to go down 1-0, but after a solo block from Philippe and a service ace from Herget on BYU’s first serve, the Cougars never trailed again in the set. BYU would stretch the lead to three points after Herget recorded a kill off an overpass to make it 9-6. The largest lead of the set was off an Oldani ace to make it 17-13. UCSB’s fourth service error of the set eventually gave BYU the 25-22 victory.

BYU started the second set with two separate 4-0 runs before getting out to a 9-2 lead, featuring back-to-back aces from Tufuga and four errors from the Gauchos. The Cougars would hold at least a four-point lead for the remainder of the set. BYU finished the set on back-to-back kills from Tufuga and Trevor Herget, winning 25-18.

UCSB picked up its first multi-point lead of the match in the third set, going up 4-1 early and maintaining that multi-point lead until late in the frame. The Cougars got within two at 12-10 on Tufuga’s third ace of the match. BYU closed the gap to a single point on a Moser kill, making it 19-18. Then the Cougars tied it at 19 with an Oldani kill, forcing a UCSB timeout. The teams then traded points, with the Cougars taking their first lead of the set on an Oldani ace to make it 22-21. After a long rally, with a few key defensive plays from the Cougars, a UCSB attack error made it 24-23 for the Cougars, brining up match point.

Eventually it was a combo block from freshmen Trevor Herget and Philippe that ended the match, giving BYU the 26-24 win in the set.