BYU Sweeps No. 21 Utah

PROVO -- BYU extended its home winning streak to 15 matches Thursday, sweeping No. 21 Utah in three games to open the Mountain West Conference season. The No. 14 Cougars improved to 6-1 on the year and a perfect 4-0 at home with their 30-26, 30-25, 30-25 win in front of a season-high crowd of 1,858 at the Smith Fieldhouse.

"Everyone on our team made a great play tonight," BYU coach Elaine Michaelis said. "We played together as a team. I thought we played the best volleyball we have played this year."

Senior middle blockers Nina Puikkonen and Jackie Bundy led BYU with 11 kills apiece while junior rightside hitter Sunny Mahe added 10. Sophomore setter Karina Puikkonen continued her solid play this season, hitting .667 with eight kills while guiding the Cougar offense to a .263 team attack percentage. The Cougar defense, led by senior outside hitter Natalie Whittaker's match-high 13 digs, recorded 47 digs while a good Utah defense totaled 39. BYU had nine blocks to Utah's five.

Senior Alisa Geddes led the Utes with 10 kills and nine digs. Utah's McKelle Stilson totaled eight kills for a .667 hitting percentage, and Adrianne Drake had five kills for a .364 hitting percentage. Utah, who dropped to 4-3 overall and 0-1 in the MWC with the loss, hit .176 as a team and had 13 service errors to BYU's seven.

"We hurt ourselves with missed serves," said Utah coach Beth Launiere. "We have some young kids, but we are on the verge of becoming a better team. This (Smith Fieldhouse) is always a tough place to play, but if you put yourself in this position enough times, you're going to learn from it and gain experience."

BYU hosts No. 18 UC Santa Barbara Wednesday before returning to conference play with home matches Sept. 28 against New Mexico and Sept. 29 versus Air Force.

Volleyball Box Score
           Utah Utes vs BYU Cougars (Sep 20, 2001 at BYU PROVO UTAH)
    Utah Utes              |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  MORRILL, Jackie.....  3|  1   0   2  .500|  0|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 3  STILSON, McKelle....  3|  8   0  12  .667|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   8.5
 6  KARTCHNER, Kelsie...  3|  1   1   3  .000| 23|  0   4|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  1|   1.0
 10 STRZINKOVA, Sylva...  2|  4   5  17 -.059|  0|  1   1|  2|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   5.0
 13 GEDDES, Alisa.......  3| 10   5  30  .167|  0|  1   2|  0|  9| 0  2  1|  0|  12.0
 16 BRADLEY-DRAKE, Adria  3|  5   1  11  .364|  1|  0   2|  0|  6| 0  2  0|  0|   6.0
 8  NEUMEIER, Tracy.....  3|  0   2   3 -.667| 15|  1   3|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 9  URBANOVA, Lenka.....  2|  1   1   8  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  3| 0  1  1|  0|   1.5
 12 ELLETT, Katrena.....  3|  7   2  18  .278|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   7.5
 15 TURNER, Kim.........  3|  7   5  21  .095|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  1|   8.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 44  22 125  .176| 40|  3  13|  3| 39| 0 10  2|  2|  52.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  6  34  .294   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14  9  45  .111   Utah Utes........... 26 25 25  4 - 3    0 - 1
   3  14  7  46  .152   BYU Cougars......... 30 30 30  6 - 1    1 - 0
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  WHITTAKER, Natalie..  3|  4   0  13  .308|  2|  0   1|  1| 13| 0  0  0|  0|   4.0
 5  PUIKKONEN, Karina...  3|  8   0  12  .667| 35|  0   0|  0|  7| 1  2  0|  1|  10.0
 9  PUIKKONEN, Nina.....  3| 11   6  24  .208|  0|  0   4|  0|  4| 1  2  0|  0|  13.0
 10 BUNDY, Jackie.......  3| 11   7  25  .160|  2|  0   1|  0|  6| 2  3  0|  0|  14.5
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  3|  0   0   1  .000|  3|  1   0|  1|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 15 MAHE, Sunny.........  3| 10   3  23  .304|  2|  2   1|  1|  8| 0  3  0|  0|  13.5
 4  WARNICK, Becky......  3|  5   2  15  .200|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   5.0
 6  STEELE, Lindsey.....  1|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 49  19 114  .263| 45|  3   7|  3| 47| 4 10  0|  1|  61.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  3  31  .355   Site: BYU PROVO UTAH (SMITH FIELDHOUSE)
   2  17  7  42  .238   Date: Sep 20, 2001   Attend: 1858   Time: 1H 30M
   3  18  9  41  .220   Referees: JOHN MARTIN, ANNETTE COTTLE, KAREN MARSHALL