Deep BYU Earns Final Four Berth

Brigham Young had no first-team selections on the all-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s volleyball team in part because each night a different player stepped up to carry the load.

Saturday night at Firestone Fieldhouse was no different.

Down two games to top-ranked Pepperdine in the best-of-five title match, the third-ranked Cougars rallied to upend the Waves, 25-30, 31-33, 30-28, 32-30, 15-7 and win the MPSF tournament championship and an automatic berth into the NCAA Final Four, which begins Thursday at Long Beach State.

Pepperdine will learn today at 2:30 p.m. if it gets the lone wild card berth into the Final Four. The Waves are considered the top contender.

Jaime Mayol had 23 kills and Jonathan Alleman had 22 for the Cougars, who also got an emotional performance off the bench from 6-foot-1 Slovenian outside hitter Luka Slabe. Slabe came off the bench to replace starter Rafael Paal, who had been a stalwart in the Cougars’ sweep of No. 2 Hawaii in the semifinals.

“It’s been that way all year long,” said Alleman, a junior from Anaheim Esperanza High. “It’s nice to have that kind of depth. The last time we played Pepperdine, it was me who they took out and someone else came in and did well. That’s the kind of team we have.”

Brigham Young (22-6) turned the tide on the Waves (24-5) in the third game, taking a 21-14 lead that set the tone for the remainder of the match. Facing match point several times in the fourth game, the Cougars pulled it out with back-to-back blocks by middle blocker Michael Burke of Pepperdine’s Brad Keenan.

Slabe led the way in the deciding fifth game. His ace on a serve made it 9-3 and Pepperdine couldn’t recover.

Fred Winters had 17 kills for Pepperdine.