BYU men's volleyball: Sander leads Cougars past Stanford

Provo • One of the largest crowds for volleyball in Smith Fieldhouse history watched No. 7 BYU roll past No. 6 Stanford 3-1 on Friday night in a much-anticipated Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match.

Behind another outstanding performance by senior Taylor Sander, the Cougars won their fifth straight league match after starting the season with two nonconference losses.

The scores were 25-20, 19-25, 25-23 and 25-21.

Announced attendance was 5,248, BYU's largest home crowd since 2007.

Sander led BYU with 18 kills, seven digs and five blocks, and Carson Heninger added 12 kills.

"That was a really fun match," Sander told BYUtv. "So many guys stepped up, and that was huge for us."

In the decisive third set, redshirt freshman Joseph Grosh broke a 23-23 tie with a kill, and then Sander served an ace for the win, his serve trickling over the net after hitting the tape.

The Cougars are now 45-6 at home the past 31/2 seasons, with two of those losses at the hands of Stanford. But the Cougars had too much firepower on this night for the Cardinal, which was ranked No. 1 last week before a pair of losses.

BYU hosts Pacific on Saturday night in Provo (7 p.m. MST, BYUtv). —

No. 7 BYU 3, No. 6 Stanford 1

O Senior Taylor Sander registers 18 kills, 7 digs and 5 blocks to lead the Cougars.