Sander, No. 3 BYU volleyball team eliminate errors in sweep of No. 10 Gauchos


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PROVO — Brenden Sander has had a lot of big performances in just his second season with the BYU men's volleyball team.

Saturday night's effort against UC Santa Barbara might have been his most complete, though.

Sander laid down six of his 15 kills in the third set, and the third-ranked BYU men's volleyball team finished off consecutive sweeps of No. 10 Santa Barbara, 25-17, 25-23, 25-14 Saturday night in the Smith Fieldhouse.

"That was a really fun game to be a part of," said Sander, who also had one of the Cougars' two aces. "All of our hitters were above .460, a lot above .500. It was so much fun to play (alongside) my teammates."

Ben Patch and Jake Langlois each added 11 kills for the Cougars (8-2, 6-2 MPSF), with each making only one attack error on 18 or more swings. BYU hit at .500 or above in the final two sets, with 17 kills to two errors in the second set and 16 kills to three errors in the final set.

BYU's match-low hitting percentage of .435 in the first set was 80 points better than the Gauchos' top percentage of .355 in the second set.

It was a stark contrast from the previous night, when BYU's 3-0 sweep sputtered with hitting errors, blocking errors and the inability to get the ball off the service line.

"I'm very impressed with the way they responded," first-year BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said. "Offensively, maybe one of our best performances since I've been coaching them. An unbelievable offensive performance and we did really good defensively. Our numbers in transition were really good."

Sander's all-around game was a high point for the Cougars. The sophomore from Huntington Beach, California, made just three hitting errors on 22 swings and he served one ace to three service errors even as one of the Cougars' main servers.

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"I thought he was really, really mature," Olmstead said of Sander. "He went back on that run serving, got them in, switched it up with a float serve. But then he took really high, hard swings and I was really impressed with him at the end. We still took big swings, and that's impressive. They took very disciplined swings."

Sander gave the Cougars all the start they needed with an early 11-5 advantage on a kill that followed an extended rally. Ben Patch added a kill to put BYU up 18-11 and Santa Barbara scarcely threatened in the opener.

Ryan Hardy pulled the Gauchos within 21-15 with a kill that fell just inside the back line. But BYU closed on a 4-1 run that included a kill and a block by Price Jarman as the Cougars claimed the first set 25-17.

Hardy led Santa Barbara with 11 kills, but the Gauchos (8-5, 4-4 MPSF) also had 16 hitting errors on 88 swings and made 11 service errors without a single ace.

BYU made just eight hitting errors, eight service errors, two blocking errors and failed to record a single overpass on the back line in playing nearly impregnable defense.

"Mentally, we don't get down on ourselves," Sander said. "It gives us a chance to block the ball and get it back, maybe get another swing."

The second set was much closer, with each team unable to pull away until a block by Sander and Michael Hatch gave BYU a 15-13 lead ahead of a media timeout.

The Gauchos pulled within a point, 23-22, on a triple block. But Olmstead called a timeout, after which Patch laid down his 10th kill of the match — with no errors to that point — to set up set point as BYU held on for the 25-23 victory to take a 2-0 advantage.

In the third set, Langlois' kill gave BYU a 15-8 advantage, which set up Sander's first ace of the match for either side. Sander then put up a kill for an 18-9 margin in the decisive set and the Cougars rolled from there to close it out.

BYU hasn't dropped a set since a 3-0 loss at No. 2 Long Beach State on Jan. 23. Since then, the Cougars have swept a pair of road matches at UC Irvine and followed that up with Friday and Saturday night's sweep of the Gauchos in Provo.

The Cougars also played a deep rotation of 10 players — a critical move for a young team, Olmstead pointed out.

"Overall, just really good," he said. "You want to get so many guys in to get that experience, and this was an awesome experience and we did well."

The Cougars hit the road for a rare East Coast road trip starting Friday at Princeton and ending Saturday at New Jersey Institute of Technology.

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Sean Walker

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