No. 7 BYU Beats Men's Volleyball In Highly-Competitive Contest

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. -- Not all straight-set losses are viewed the same, Merrimack men's volleyball coach Hayden West-Mather acknowledged after a hard-fought defeat to No. 7 BYU at Sakowich Center on Monday night.

The Cougars, who jumped in the national standings following a pair of three-set wins at the Harvard Invitational over the weekend, defeated the Warriors 25-11, 25-17, 25-17. 

"We're playing a top-10 team so the guys started a little bit shaky, but we just decided we got to let it rip," West-Mather said after praising the atmosphere. "We got to go with power. If we're going to make mistakes, we got to do it really aggressively. So, I think they came into that a little bit more."

Merrimack led 7-6 in the third set. Dallas Birkenbeuel's kill later trimmed BYU's lead to 21-17 before the Cougars closed the game with four straight points.

Max Tkachev (14 kills) recorded a second-straight game in double-figures while Birkenbeuel finished with five kills. Reece Lindstrom (26 assists, three kills), Kyle Standage (team-high eight digs), Nick Tidik (two blocks) and Nathaniel Venegas (one block) all contributed in the win.

"Our faults beat us at every level so we see that we can hang with these teams -- we actually played our best of the weekend today," West-Mather said. "So, good growth and now we get to go play some more local teams and hopefully get some Ws."

The Warriors host D'Youville on Saturday at 1 p.m.