Talk about incentive Saturday night. Playing in front of the home crowd, trying to keep a season alive and take the path toward reenacting some of the men's volleyball program's past glory.

A four-set win against UC Irvine at Smith Fieldhouse -- one game longer than really should have been played -- means the Cougars are off to Long Beach, Calif., for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation semifinals.

That match is against Cal State Northridge on Thursday, meaning some players are likely going to get a chance to delay next week's schoolwork and exams while they're on the road.

"No way that would cross our mind," one player said, dripping sarcasm.

No. 2-seeded BYU had reason to feel good, like it aced a big test, after surviving a No. 7 Anteaters team that came in as the defending national champions and nearly forced what could've been an epic fifth set.

It rallied big to win the third game, 30-28, and had a two-point lead late in the fourth (25-23) before falling by the same score.

How the night even reached four matches is somewhat crazy. BYU won each of the first two sets by at least eight points and held a 28-25 lead on its way to what surely looked like a 90-minute sweep.

Uh, check that. UC Irvine scrambled, got the Cougars to tighten up. The home team was out of timeouts and substitutions, while UC Irvine had top server Aaron Harrell going. He had some senior moments in a good way, even chipping in an ace.

The visitors, the eighth-ranked team in the country, extended the match one point later -- they won the last five points.

"You can't blink, or you'll get beat," BYU coach Shawn Patchell said about his No. 3-ranked team in the country.

It might be a good, memorable lesson heading to Long Beach. The Cougars will play the MPSF's No. 3-seeded Cal State Northridge, which swept No. 6 Stanford last night.

BYU won all five of its five-set matches this year and nearly had to lay that perfection on the line.

That could've been fascinating. In mid-February, these teams played the longest fifth set (28-26) in BYU and MPSF history.

But Ivan Perez (match-high 19 kills, .406 attack percentage) finished off the match with a kill along the left sideline. Given a second chance to be at 28 points, trying to put a match away, the outside hitter said there was a new focus.

"We were at home, we had the fans going, we were all pumped up," Perez said. "We're in the huddle at 28-26 and said 'let's get two more points and we go to Long Beach.'"

One good thing for the Cougars about playing an extra set: It meant athletic director Tom Holmoe and his wife, who were vacationing in southern California, made it back in time from the airport to see the conclusion.

It was BYU's seventh consecutive win, setting up another postseason match against a team in which the Cougars won both regular-season meetings.

Perez said the team isn't talking about it much, but it weighs on players' minds that BYU hasn't made it past the semifinals in the last three seasons, not since the national championship won in 2004.

• In other action: In addition to CS Northridge's victory over Stanford, Pepperdine went on the road and defeated UCLA in four games to advance to the MPSF semifinals.

The Wave, the fifth seed in the tourney, took Games 3 and 4 from the Bruins to advance to play tournament host Long Beach State next Thursday.