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Provo • March was maddening for BYU, as the Cougars dropped all six of their matches that month and plummeted down the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings.
The six consecutive losses made the program's longest losing skid since 1991, and BYU was in slight danger of missing the MPSF playoffs heading into April. But the Cougars rebounded last week by sweeping a pair of matches against Cal State Northridge to secure a playoff berth. They are looking to build their confidence and perhaps improve their seeding when No. 1 Hawaii rolls into the Smith Fieldhouse this weekend for a pair of regular-season-ending matches.
"This weekend is huge for us," coach Chris McGown said.
Their chance at repeating as the league's regular-season champion is long gone, and their opportunity to host an MPSF first-round playoff match is hanging by a thread, but the No. 6 Cougars (15-9, 12-8 MPSF) still have a lot to play for Friday and Saturday against the first-place Warriors (23-3, 18-2), who have won 16 straight matches, McGown said.
First serve is at 7 p.m. both nights, and the matches will be televised by BYUtv.
For fifth-place BYU to move into fourth place and earn the right to host a playoff match, it would have to sweep Hawaii, and fourth-place USC (13-7) would have to lose one of its two matches against second-to-last-place Cal Baptist.
"This league is weird, and strange things happen, so we are going about this weekend with the intent of winning them both and trying to give ourselves a chance [to move up]," McGown said.
If they lose both matches, the Cougars could conceivably drop to sixth place and have to travel to the home of the third-place team (likely Pepperdine) instead of to fourth-place USC. They split with the Trojans in February and were swept by the Waves in the middle of March.
Matt Underwood, a junior opposite hitter who led the way in the sweep of CSUN, said the field house will be rocking both nights against one of BYU volleyball's biggest rivals.
"We aren't scared of anyone," Underwood said. "We respect them, obviously. They are a great team. We are just getting in the gym every day, working as hard as we can, really competing with each other and pushing each other to get better and get ready for the weekend."
Seniors from both schools will be honored before Saturday's match, a BYU tradition on Senior Night. The Cougars will send off seniors Phil Fuchs, Jaylen Reyes and Josue Rivera, the colorful Puerto Rican who has a broken hand and is out for the season.
The Cougars were picked sixth in the MPSF preseason poll, but they were 13-3 heading into March and giving their fans reason to believe they could contend for a national title. However, the six-match skid, exacerbated by injuries, brought expectations back to earth.
"With the exception of one weekend — the Stanford weekend — I think that we have had a really nice season," McGown said. "I thought we were unprepared mentally and emotionally go to out and play Stanford at the level we needed to. … So that was the only point in the season where I thought we could have played better. The guys have done mostly what we've asked. They have worked hard every day. We have seen a lot of players improve in a lot of areas. Just some of the younger guys coming along, and some of the guys we didn't expect big contributions from are making some great contributions for us. I like the way it is going."
With Underwood, Fuchs, Reyes, Jake Langlois, Kiri Meretev, Michael Hatch, Robbie Sutton and Price Jarman playing well as of late, the Cougars can erase those bitter March memories with a big weekend against Hawaii.
"We are telling them, 'Let's take it to these guys,' " McGown said. "Hawaii is a wonderful team, obviously, with some really nice athletes. But we have played really well against opponents that have beat them. … You look at the numbers they are putting out, and they are impressive in areas, and then there are areas where we feel like we can go out and do some things against these guys. So I don't think our guys are feeling like, 'Oh no, it is Hawaii, they are No. 1, what are we gonna do?' Our guys are fired up."
Twitter: @drewjay —
No. 1 Hawaii vs. No. 6 BYU
P At Smith Fieldhouse, Provo
Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m.
TV • BYUtv