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Senior night. Your close friends and family watching in the stands. A No. 1 seed in the MPSF Tournament on the line.
Needless to say, BYU's Jonathan Charette and Trent Sorenson were inspired.
The senior duo fueled a dominant attack for the Cougars on Saturday night, leading BYU to the weekend sweep of USC in a 30-22, 30-25, 30-22 win.
"It feels surreal," said Sorenson of his final regular-season home contest. "It's great to play at home because we almost feel a little invincible."
Invincibility might have been exactly what the Trojans needed themselves. Sorenson (Eight kills, 10 assisted blocks) and Charette (14 kills, five assisted blocks) tormented the men of Troy throughout the night at the net.
The explosive hitting by Charette and timely blocks by Sorenson seemed to spark the Cougars early on.
After helping the Cougars take a 14-12, the duo fueled the Cougars to a dominating 15-3 run to take control offensively.
"We wanted to start off dialed in and let them know we were ready to play," Sorenson said. "We started off well and with a lot of emotion. They felt that on the other side of the net."
Even with the early statement, USC showed it wasn't going down without a fight, racking off five straight points to close the gap to 27-20.
From there, neither team could seize control, as both teams traded errors until USC's Matt Pavlovich finally gave the Cougars the game-one victory on a serving error.
The serving error was one of 11 serving errors on the night for USC, while BYU only finished with two.
Although Charette, Sorenson and the rest of the Cougar seniors were on full display, they weren't the only ones leaving their mark on the court.
Sophomore Andrew Stewart gave Cougar fans a glimpse of the future with his strong offensive play in the second game.
After blasting home one of his trademark kills to start the game, Stewart (six kills, six digs) quickly struck again, hitting another kill and serving up an ace to help BYU take a 7-4 advantage.
Despite Stewart's play and a couple powerful strikes by Ivan Perez and Sorenson, the Trojans still wouldn't go away.
Fighting back to tie the match at 10 apiece, outside hitter Juan Figueroa (10 kills) snuck a kill inside the Cougar back line to give USC its first lead of the game 11-10.
The lead didn't last long though, as the Cougars outscored the Trojans 13-7 to recapture the lead and eventually notch the second-game win.
With the Trojans on their heels late in the third frame, BYU delivered the knockout blow when Charette served up an ace and freshman Jeff Robinson pounded home a kill to seal to give the Cougars their sixth victory in a row.
"Six straight is nice," said head coach Shawn Patchell. "Ten or eleven would be even better. Whatever happens in the tournament, I think we have it in us."
• Long Beach clinches: Long Beach State seized the home court advantage for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs with an impressive three-game sweep of Northridge on the road Saturday night. Dean Bittner had 22 kills and hit .645 as the 49ers claimed a 32-30, 30-27, 30-26 win.
Long Beach State finished the regular season tied atop the MPSF standings with BYU at 18-4, but the 49ers swept two home matches from the Cougars in March to own the tiebreaker.
BYU will open the MPSF playoffs at home in the quarterfinals on April 19 against the winner of the play-in game between the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds. Tickets for the match go on sale beginning Tuesday for Cougar Club members and season ticket holders, while the general public can secure their tickets starting Thursday.
Long Beach State earns a bye in the quarterfinals and will host the MPSF semifinals and finals April 24 and 26. |
