SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – UC Santa Barbara junior setter Jonah Seif dished out 37 assists – just over 12 per game – and directed his eighth-ranked Gauchos to a .329 hitting percentage to steer them to a three-set sweep over No. 4 BYU in Friday night's MPSF contest at Rob Gym.

The win (25-21, 25-18, 25-22) snapped a two-match losing streak for the Gauchos (5-2, 1-2 MPSF), gave the squad its first conference win of the season, and made them 5-0 at home so far in the young season. Provo, Utah-based BYU fell to 3-2, 2-1 with the loss. Despite BYU's impressive record under fourth-year head coach Chris McGown, the Gauchos have now claimed three of the last four matches between the two teams played at Rob Gym.

Seif, a 2014 AVCA All-American, had one of his best matches of the season despite a lack of gaudy numbers, equally distributing the ball and preventing the Cougars – who annually rank as one of the top blocking teams in the country – from asserting themselves at the net. The Gauchos had a team hitting percentage over .200 in all three sets and had a different leading killer for each separate game.

Senior opposite Kevin Donohue and senior outside hitter Jacob Delson each had a dozen kills to pace the Gauchos. Senior outside Weston Nielsen added eight kills as well, and junior middle blocker Ryan Hardy was efficient off the quick set, collecting six kills on just nine swings.

"Overall, it was a good team performance and it was nice to re-establish our game on our home floor," said UCSB head coach Rick McLaughlin. "Despite the sweep, that was a good team on the other side of the net, and we expect another battle tomorrow night."

The two teams were tight on the scoreboard through the first two-thirds of the opening game. UCSB thought it had created some momentum when Kevin Donohue smashed a kill to cap off a 4-1 run that made the score 18-16 in favor of the Gauchos, but BYU stormed right back with a 3-1 run of their own to tie the match at 19-19. A few points later, another Donohue kill send substitute Parker Boehle to the service line. Boehle's float created some less-than-ideal passes from the Cougars, leading to another Donohue kill and a Nielsen-Jake Staahl double-block that set up game point. Boehle went on to make a nice dig of a Brenden Sander drive on the next play before Nielsen found a seam for his game-leading and game-clinching fifth kill.

UCSB carried momentum from that late run into the second game, when despite hitting a match-low .217 the team still steamrolled the Cougars to go up 2-0. Tied at 7-7, a Jake Langlois service error followed by a Ryan Hardy ace kick-started an 11-4 UCSB run that helped them run away with the set. The Gauchos ripped half of their six aces in the frame while getting BYU out of system with their non-ace serves, holding the away team to a .100 hitting percentage. Delson led the way with five kills in the game.

A fluid, back-and-forth third set – UCSB hit .484 while BYU still came in at a .391 clip as the teams created 20 ties and exchanged the lead eight times – swung the Gauchos' way late as Donohue recorded seven kills with Hardy terrorizing the Cougars' front row to the tune of five kills in the frame. 

Trailing 20-21, Parker Boehle once again came up big for UCSB with the float serve, pushing the team ahead 23-21. After hitting the net with his final serve, Donohue responded with a thunderous cross-court swing on the next point and then took over at the service line, forcing BYU's Matt Underwood into hitting wide to win match point.

BYU was led by Langlois, who finished with an even dozen kills and a robust .500 hitting percentage. The other Cougar attackers failed to find a rhythm, as three BYU players finished with negative hitting percentages.

The Gauchos and Cougars will go right back at it tomorrow night, facing each other for the second consecutive time on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.