PROVO — The BYU men's volleyball team starts its postseason title defense as the sixth-ranked Cougars play host to No. 7 UC Santa Barbara tonight.
BYU (20-9 overall) is seeded third in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament and UCSB (15-13) sixth as the two meet in tonight's quarterfinal.
The Cougars are looking to defend their 2004 MPSF and NCAA championships, but in order to get to the latter, they must at least get to the finals of the former. But they can't do that without beating the Gauchos tonight in the single-elimination tournament.
Not only will the Cougars need to overcome the inconsistency that has hounded them through much of the season, but they'll also need to overcome a wildcard week of sorts, thanks to the end of BYU's academic semester.
First, players taking finals meant BYU coach Tom Peterson had to scratch practices Monday and Tuesday and settle for a makeshift session Wednesday. He hopes the increased strain of end-of-semester studying and testing doesn't carry over as mental or emotional baggage tonight.
Also, the Cougars will likely see a decrease in their home crowd, annually among the nation's best. This year, BYU averaged 3,406 a game — second best in school history, behind 1999's 4,748 average, when the Cougars drew an NCAA-record 14,156 to the Marriott Center for a BYU-Hawaii match.
However, much of the student body has left town after finals and graduation activities, and tournament ticket prices are set by the conference, meaning the university's usual student discounts and passes don't apply tonight.
Tickets are $10 for general admission and $6 for students, with students showing All-Sport Cards admitted for $5.
The Cougars are coming off a pair of weekend victories at No. 10 Stanford to end the regular season. The wins clinched third place for BYU, which could have dropped all the way to fifth place with even one lost match and would have faced the prospects of a quarterfinal match at hot-of-late Long Beach State, the nation's No. 4 team and last year's runner-up to BYU in both the NCAA and MPSF championship matches.
"To finish that way says a lot for our team," said Peterson.
BYU and UCSB opened the MPSF regular season with a pair of Provo matches last January, with the Gauchos winning the first in four games and BYU claiming a three-game sweep in the second.
Three keys for the Cougars will be control the serve and serve-receive, to take the Gauchos out of their system and to be consistent in their offensive attack with setter Rob Nielson directing the flow.
Before beating Southern Cal in its regular-season finale, UCSB had lost five of its previous six matches. The Gauchos feature opposite hitter Evan Patak, an all-around threat who leads the MPSF and the nation with 5.65 kills per game, and a pair of high-percentage middle blockers in Michael Kennedy and Theo Brunner.
BYU leads the overall series against UCSB 18-14, including 11-5 at home and the last eight played in Provo since 1998.
E-mail: taylor@desnews.com