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National championships don't come all that often around here in any sport, but the top-ranked BYU men's volleyball team, hatched from a program that has hoisted its share of title trophies, has a decent shot at hoisting another next week at the NCAA Tournament.

Fact is, it would be a surprise if the Cougars didn't win.

They are 26-3. They just won their conference championship, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, beating UCLA for the crown. They are the No. 1 national seed. All told, they won 81 sets this season and dropped 20. They shut out 17 opponents and lost one match since late January. The only outfits to beat them were Long Beach State, Stanford and Pepperdine, and the Cougars, in turn, beat each of those teams, too.

UCLA, the 2-seed at the national tournament, was defeated three straight times by BYU, on each account by the score of 3-1.

BYU physically dominated most of their foes leading up to this point, thrashing and hammering opponents with tall players who sky over the net, who out-hit them and out-block them. The Cougars rank first in the country in hitting percentage and first in blocks per set. There's nothing nuanced or subtle about the way they attack and flat crush the ball.

They play their game the way Ivan Drago would have played it. They break teams.

Coach Shawn Olmstead, who played on two national championship teams at BYU, describes his group thusly: "They're big, strong and physical. … I can't think of too many athletes at BYU in any sport who can jump as high as they do. They're world-class level. They get up to 12 feet, 4 inches. We've got a handful of guys who can do that. They jump high and hit hard."

Considering that the top of a basketball backboard is 13 feet, that kind of elevation is a combo-pack of uncommon and intimidating, and to Olmstead's figuring, useful.

"Our physical aspects stand out," he said. "It's an eye-catcher. The great teams that have come through BYU haven't had this, not 1-through-6. Jake Langlois is 6-10. Ben Patch is 6-9. Brenden Sander is only 6-4. But they can all jump out of the gym. It's unique. It's the defining characteristic of this team."

Olmstead said some of BYU's opponents have been completely overwhelmed by the Cougars' power hitting on offense and wall-building on defense. One coach, sitting on the bench, said: "We can't stop these guys."

"You kind of get a sense that teams try to do things they don't ordinarily do [to beat us]," Olmstead said.

Which is to say, they get desperate and over-hit or try to be too perfect when they serve. In BYU's most recent win over UCLA in the MPSF title game at Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday, the Bruins, normally a great serving team, had 27 service errors and just one ace.

"They went for it," Olmstead said.

And they lost to BYU, again.

But the Cougars have their shortcomings, too. They sometimes struggle at receiving and passing, getting the ball consistently in a good place to the setter in order for the ball to be delivered properly to their big guns.

"We don't even work on attacking in practice," Olmstead said. "It's all ball-control things."

As for the subtleties, Langlois said, "We have guys who can do that." The key, he said, is to put pressure on teams off the serve. From there, BYU's power game can take care of its business.

According to the junior outside hitter, his team has accomplished something every team sets out to do from season's jump — it's improved incrementally, regularly: "We were a 5 or a 6 when we started. Now, we're a 9. But we still have to get better. The whole team dynamic is good. Everyone's working together. We're an actual team."

Olmstead, who grew up in a volleyball family, a family that counts Karch Kiraly as a close friend, is aware that he's driving the fastest car on the track. But he's also been around the game long enough to distrust its quirks and weird momentum changes. He's seen his team stall out in its three losses, defeats that he classified as "learning moments."

While he knows painful lessons can rear up again, he's confident that his team, fully dialed in, can lift one more trophy.

"We've got a lot of very good players, and some outstanding players," he said. "If they control the ball, it's going to be a handful for other teams to try to keep up with them. … I constantly preach that to this group, almost every week. For a team to hang with us for five sets, it has to do something remarkable, something exceptional."

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson. —

NCAA men's volleyball tournament

At Rec Hall, Penn State

All times MDT

May 3 Play-in matches

• No. 4 Long Beach State (24-7) vs. No. 5 Erskine (20-6), 4 p.m.

• No. 3 Ohio State (28-2) vs. No. 6 George Mason (18-11), 6 p.m.

May 5 Semifinals

• No. 1 BYU (26-3) vs. LBSU or Erskine, 4 p.m.

• No. 2 UCLA (25-6) vs. Ohio State or George Mason, 6 p.m.

May 7 Championship

Semifinal winners, 5 p.m., ESPN2