BYU men's volleyball – Standings shakeup

While the top-ranked BYU men’s volleyball team took a second straight week away from Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action (sweeping a pair of nonleague matches against NAIA powerhouse Cal-Baptist University), there were some interesting early season developments last week in MPSF action.
The biggest surprise was No. 2 Pepperdine dropping a pair of matches – at home, no less. On Wednesday night, the Waves faltered in four games to defending champion and 10th-ranked UC Irvine – the same team that earlier lost to UC San Diego. Then on Friday night, host Pepperdine fell in five to No. 5 UCLA.
That leaves three teams leading the pack in the MSPF standings – undefeated and fourth-ranked Long Beach State (6-0 overall, 4-0 MPSF), undefeated and No. 1 BYU (7-0, 2-0 MPSF) and No. 7 Cal State Northridge (6-2, 4-1). Long Beach State was idle last week, while Northridge needed the minimum three games to dispatch Stanford and Pacific in a pair of road matches.
Everyone else in the league already has at least two losses (UCLA, Pepperdine and Hawaii) or more (the rest of the 12-team field).
BYU plays its first MPSF home matches of the season this weekend as Northridge pays a visit Friday and Saturday nights at the Smith Fieldhouse.
Other matches of note this week: Pepperdine travels to Long Beach State on Wednesday night and to UC San Diego Frday night; while UC Irvine visits UCLA Friday night.