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PROVO — Ben Patch dived to his right, digging a ball before it sailed out for a UCLA point and pushing it across the court to his setter, Leo Durkin.
It was the third kill attempt of a point in the fourth set, but Patch drove the ball like it was his first set attempt.
Durkin pushed the ball back to him.
And with one mighty swing, Patch pounded a kill that gave BYU a 13-7 lead with a 2-1 advantage in the fourth set — and sent the sellout crowd of 4,875 fans at the Smith Fieldhouse into a frenzy.
It was that kind of night.
Patch spiked a match-high 14 kills and eight digs, and Brenden Sander added 11 kills and six digs to lift the top-ranked BYU men’s volleyball team to a 25-20, 25-19, 18-25, 25-15 win over No. 3 UCLA in the finals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament on Saturday night in Provo.
“It’s so awesome when you make plays. It does more than people realize,” said Patch, who earned tournament most valuable player honors. “I think after that, we settled down and played our game.”
Durkin distributed 31 assists for BYU (26-3), which earned the league’s automatic bid to NCAA Tournament, which will be hosted by Penn State. Jake Langlois supplied eight kills, and Price Jarman had five kills and two blocks for the Cougars.
“The atmosphere was amazing; it’s electric whenever we play here. But this was the first time I’ve seen it that full in the fieldhouse,” Patch said. “Sometimes it’s such a high decibel, you can’t even hear the noise — you have to blend it out. It was amazing.”
BYU had open up overflow seating for the standing-room-only crowd of 4,875 fans, many of whom were still streaming into the Smith Fieldhouse as the match started. BYU staffers removed the curtain behind the west bleachers, and the Cougars responded to the extra energy by jumping out to a two sets to none lead over the Bruins (25-6).
“It was a wonderful environment tonight,” said UCLA coach John Speraw, who also coaches the U.S. national team. “I thought it was great for volleyball, and the fan support was incredible. I think it’s a great experience for our young men to have an opportunity to play in an environment that’s as special as this.”
JT Hatch led the Bruins with 13 kills, and Micah Ma’a dished out 24 assists along with 10 kills for UCLA. Teammate Jake Arnitz supplied 12 kills for the Bruins, and Mitch Stahl added 10 kills, as well.
But aided by the crowd and the benefit of playing at home and at altitude, the Cougars took advantage of service errors in the third meeting between the schools. UCLA served 27 errors to just nine for BYU. The Cougars also had six aces, while the Bruins were held to one.
“Offensively, we played a much better volleyball match than a few weeks ago. But unfortunately, our service game was the worst of the year and worse than I’ve seen our team do in several years,” Speraw said. “Serving at BYU is always a challenge, but I think it was more than altitude; too many of our errors were not altitude-related.”
Sander came out on fire in the opening setting, knocking down five kills on an even .500 hitting percentage. His second ace of the match set up match point, 24-20, and the California native then rose up to spike the set-winning kill on the next play.
The atmosphere was amazing; it’s electric whenever we play here. But this was the first time I’ve seen it that full in the fieldhouse. Sometimes it’s such a high decibel, you can’t even hear the noise — you have to blend it out. It was amazing.
–BYU opposite Ben Patch
BYU kept the momentum in the second set, leaping out to an early 9-5 advantage, then added to its margin with an extended rally to go up 18-14. Langlois’ ace gave BYU a 20-14 lead, and the Cougars took advantage of eight service errors by the Bruins in the second set.
“I went out confident, and had a bunch of confidence in Leo and Ben — he opens the whole front row for me, as everyone goes to him,” said Sander, who hit at a .526 clip. “I just came out with confidence, and knew all of our guys would come out swinging just as hard.”
Still, UCLA was the third-ranked team in the nation — the second-best team in the MPSF by seed — and came out of the break with a vengeance in the third set.
UCLA took control early with a 5-2 lead on Sprague’s kill, and a 10-7 advantage on Stahl’s kill after Patch had tied the match at 6-6.
Arnitz kept the Cougars at bay with a kill to put UCLA up 18-14, despite five aces through that point of the third set that threatened to derail their efforts. The Bruins used a 6-1 run to jump out to 22-15 on back-to-back BYU hitting errors and capped off the third-set win with Arnitz’s 10th kill of the match.
The Cougars were shell-shocked in the third set, perhaps by UCLA’s 6-2 offense that relied heavily on standout freshman Ma’a, whom Speraw called the best player he’s ever coached.
“I stopped being surprised by Micah Ma’a,” Speraw said. “He’s an exceptional young player; the best I’ve ever coached. His ability to do so many things on the volleyball court is really unique — and it’s why we are running the 6-2 offense. It allows him to do all those things.”
But BYU responded in the fourth set, putting the loss of one behind them and surging as UCLA gifted six points off errors to BYU in the Cougars’ first eight points of the set.
Jarman laid down the match-winning kill after giving BYU match-point two plays before, 24-14, and the beyond-capacity crowd rose to its feet as the Cougars placed three players on the all-tournament team in Patch, Sander and Durkin.
BYU (MPSF champion)
Ohio State (MIVA champion)
Erskine (Conference Carolinas champion)
George Mason (EIVA champion)
“If we’re in here for five sets but get the victory, we’ll take it,” Sander said. “We don’t have to end it in a certain amount of sets. But it was nice to end it in four.”
As the No. 1 team in the nation, BYU likely goes into Sunday’s NCAA Selection Show as the top seed and the presumed team to beat in the field of six that includes MIVA champion Ohio State, EIVA champ George Mason and Conference Carolinas champ Erskine.
But Olmstead contended he didn’t know anything about that; he’s still trying to get his players to soak up the moment.
“These guys are going to enjoy this right now,” said Olmstead, just over a year removed from leading the BYU women’s team to the national championship match. “Their attitude is that it will all take care of itself. They just want to keep playing volleyball, and they’ve earned that right.
“Being No. 1 in the country and winning that point, it’s likely they are the No. 1 seed. But if not? We’ll lace them up and play the same way.”
