Another 3-0 Win for the Cougars

PROVO -- In their fourth three-game match of the season, the BYU Cougars defeated the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos 30-26, 30-24, 30-24 in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest Friday night. BYU improves to 8-1 overall and in the MPSF with the win, while the Gauchos fall 4-10 overall, 1-7 in conference play.

The BYU outside hitters were the stars in this match, with senior Rafael Paal leading the Cougars with 13 kills and a .600 average. Senior Jaime Mayol and junior Jonathan Alleman both registered 12 kills on the night, with Mayol recording a match-high .647 hitting percentage, four digs and three blocks.

"Mayol and Paal had a nice night according to the stats," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "Our outsides were the two highest hitters; that's probably a first for us."

Sophomore middle blocker Michael Burke, who leads the MPSF in hitting with a .522 average for the season, hit a lower-than-usual .385 average with seven kills. However, he did lead the defense for the Cougars, recording five block assists. Setter Carlos Moreno guided the Cougar offense with 43 assists and was a major player on defense with four block assists.

Overall, the Cougars hit a team season-high .466 average and out-blocked the Gauchos 10-5.

"We tried to go with a certain game plan," Peterson said. "We picked up on some of their weaknesses and tried to aim for those. It's nice to see a good game plan executed."

Leading the Gauchos with nine kills each were Matt Boelk, Keith Busam and Michael Kennedy.

The Cougars and Gauchos will have a rematch Saturday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. (PST).

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
                          Brigham Young vs No. 13 UCSB 
                     Feb 14, 2003 at Santa Barbara, Calif.
    Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Michael Burke.......  3|  7   2  13  .385|  0|  2   2|  0|  0| 0  5  0|  0
 5  Carlos Moreno.......  3|  4   1   5  .600| 43|  0   3|  0|  1| 0  4  0|  0
 6  Chris Gorny.........  3|  6   1   8  .625|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0
 7  Jaime Mayol.........  3| 12   1  17  .647|  1|  1   4|  1|  4| 1  2  0|  0
 9  Rafael Paal.........  3| 13   1  20  .600|  1|  2   3|  0|  2| 1  1  0|  0
 12 Jonathan Alleman....  3| 12   6  23  .261|  2|  0   3|  0|  4| 0  2  0|  0
 1  Casey Patterson.....  2|  0   1   2 -.500|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 15 Shawn Olmstead......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 17 Fernando Pessoa.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 54  13  88  .466| 47|  5  20|  2| 15| 2 16  0|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  4  32  .500   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  21  3  29  .621   Brigham Young....... 30 30 30  8-1, 8-1
   3  13  6  27  .259   UCSB................ 26 24 24  4-10, 1-7
    UCSB                   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  Bart Kowalski.......  3|  0   0   1  .000| 34|  0   2|  0|  3| 1  1  0|  0
 7  Nate Wack...........  2|  7   1  11  .545|  0|  0   2|  1|  0| 1  1  0|  0
 13 Matt Boelk..........  3|  9   6  20  .150|  1|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 15 Keith Busam.........  3|  9   5  18  .222|  0|  0   0|  2|  5| 0  0  1|  0
 25 Michael Kennedy.....  3|  9   2  14  .500|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 1  2  0|  0
 33 Justin Adams........  3|  5   1   8  .500|  0|  1   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 5  Mike Nelson.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 9  Jan Carlo Zegarra...  3|  2   2   5  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 12 Dan Terry...........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 19 Aaron Mansfield.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 22 Anders Bengtsson....  1|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  1   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 41  17  78  .308| 36|  2  12|  5| 14| 3  4  1|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  6  24  .292   Site: Santa Barbara, Calif (Robertson Gym)
   2  16  3  24  .542   Date: Feb 14, 2003   Attend:     Time: 1:30
   3  12  8  30  .133   Referees: Marvin Hall, Brant Lee

PROVO -- This weekend the BYU men's volleyball team travels to Santa Barbara to take on Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opponent UC Santa Barbara in back-to-back matches Feb. 14 and 15.

The Gauchos (3-8, 1-6 MPSF), ranked 14th in the nation, are coming off a 3-0 non-conference win over UC Santa Cruz on Feb. 11, while the fourth-ranked Cougars (7-1, 7-1 MPSF) defeated MPSF foe UC San Diego in back-to-back matches last weekend, 3-0 and 3-1.

"UC Santa Barbara is a decent team, especially the defense," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "We will have to match their intensity, and playing (in Santa Barbara) we will have more distractions."

Distractions or not, the key to winning this weekend will be a consistent technique and strong emotion coming from the Cougar ranks.

"We are better when we are emotional," Peterson said, "but we have to be consistent."

As for UC Santa Barbara, BYU leads the series 14-12 since 1990, but is behind 5-7 in Santa Barbara. Last year, the Cougars hosted the Gauchos in Provo and came away with a pair of 3-0 wins.

Both matches begin at 7 p.m. (PST) in Robertson Gym in Santa Barbara.

The Cougars will return home next week to host No. 1 Hawaii on February 20 and 21. Thursday night's match will be at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse, and Friday's match will be held at 7 p.m. in the Marriott Center as the Cougars aim to re-break the NCAA attendance record set in 1999 against Hawaii with 14,156 fans in attendance.