HONOLULU -- The BYU men's volleyball team came back from a two games to none deficit to defeat the Penn State Nittany Lions (27-30, 28-30, 30-27, 30-24, 15-11) Thursday and improve to 2-0 on the season. The victory extends the Cougar's win streak to nine overall, dating back to the 2004 season.

BYU coach Tom Peterson was impressed with the way his team bounced back from a rough start to claim the match.

"We were very inconsistent in the first two games but put things together and were able to come back," Peterson said. "I thought we got a lot more consistent with our passing in the third game. It was pretty neat to see the confidence develop and eliminate the errors."

Peterson, who coached at Penn State in the early 90s and won a National Championship with the Nittany Lions in 1994, said it is always exciting to play his former team.

"There's always a little added pleasure playing guys you know," he said.

After struggling in the first two games to get into a groove, the Cougars woke up and won three straight to steal the match from the Nittany Lions. BYU hit a blistering .410 in the third game, recording 22 kills to get back into the contest. The Cougars were able to shutdown the Penn State offense in the fourth and fifth games, limiting the Nittany Lions to hitting percentages of .216 and .143.

Senior middle blocker Michael Burke led BYU with 16 kills, a team-high .500 hitting percentage, and four blocks. Senior opposite hitter Casey Patterson and freshman middle blocker Russell Holmes each recorded career highs in kills with 15 and 14, respectively. Patterson added a career-high three service aces as well.

Two other Cougars also registered career highs as junior libero Brian Rowley had 10 digs and junior setter Rob Neilson had 68 assists. Freshman outside hitter Ivan Perez, who struggled against Lewis on Wednesday, had career highs of nine kills and three blocks.

Peterson noted that the team's depth and their ability to set the middle blockers were keys to the team's success.

"Our middles played great," Peterson said. "That's huge when we can go to our middles. Casey (Patterson) coming in was big. He brings a lot of energy. Our depth is a major strength for us. Our ability to go to various guys at different times throughout the match was important."

As a team, BYU hit .286 on the night, had 44 digs, nine team blocks, and eight service aces. Penn State hit .294 for match while recording 13 team blocks and 50 digs.

Four Nittany Lions recorded double figures in kills with Alex Gutor leading the way with a match-high 17. Gary Vogel had a match-high 17 digs while Keith Kowal chipped in a match-high six blocks.

Coach Tom Peterson said his team would need to play a solid match to defeat a very good Penn State team after playing poorly in the previous night's victory over Lewis University. The Cougars struggled throughout the first two games, making errors and hitting for low percentages. BYU hit .273 and .178 respectively in the first two games.

Peterson is looking forward to playing Hawai'i on Friday and said he knows that it will be a big test for his team.

"Hawai'i is a very good team with a lot of depth," Peterson said. "I would maybe rank them as the team to beat in the country. They have a bunch of guys that can play so I think they are a very good team. They're great at home. Their crowd is amazing. That's really going to test us. Our main concern is how long we can play without errors."

To view the detailed box score, click on the pdf version above.

The Cougars will conclude the Outrigger Tournament with a match against the host University of Hawai'i on Friday at 7 p.m. (HST). The match will be broadcast live on the internet. To listen, visit http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu/ or click here.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
          Brigham Young Univ. vs Penn State (Jan 06, 2005 at Honolulu)
    Brigham Young Univ.    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  BURKE, Michael......  5| 16   3  26  .500|  1|  1   0|  0|  3| 0  4  1|  0|  19.0
 9  PATTERSON, Casey....  5| 15   6  29  .310|  3|  3   2|  3|  5| 0  0  0|  0|  18.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  5| 14   4  30  .333|  0|  0   4|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0|  15.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  5|  7   1  12  .500| 68|  0   3|  0|  6| 0  3  0|  1|   8.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  5| 15   8  42  .167|  1|  2   4|  1|  7| 1  2  1|  2|  19.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  2|  4   7  16 -.188|  0|  0   1|  0|  5| 0  1  0|  0|   4.5
 6  HEYES, Matt.........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  5|  1   0   1 1.000|  3|  0   0|  0| 10| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  5|  9   2  19  .368|  1|  1   3|  0|  7| 0  3  0|  1|  11.5
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 81  31 175  .286| 77|  8  19|  5| 44| 1 16  2|  4|  98.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  8  33  .273   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  18 10  45  .178   Brigham Young Univ.. (3) 27 28 30 30 15  2-0
   3  22  6  39  .410   Penn State.......... (2) 30 30 27 24 11  0-2
   4  17  5  44  .273
   5   7  2  14  .357
    Penn State             |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  O'Dell, Dan.........  4|  2   1   6  .167| 38|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  4  0|  2|   4.0
 4  Proper, Matt........  5| 13   8  28  .179|  1|  1   2|  0|  9| 0  1  1|  1|  14.5
 7  Wentzel, Kevin......  5| 11   5  25  .240|  0|  1   4|  2|  4| 0  1  0|  0|  12.5
 10 Gutor, Alex.........  5| 17   6  36  .306|  0|  2   3|  2|  9| 1  4  0|  0|  22.0
 11 Meerstein, Nate.....  5| 11   1  16  .625|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 2  3  1|  1|  14.5
 14 Kowal, Keith........  5|  7   2  22  .227|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  6  2|  0|  10.0
 1  Vogel, Gary.........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  4|  0   0|  1| 17| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 3  Masterson, Kyle.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 5  Fernandez, Guillermo  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  Walthall, Ryan......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 8  Smith, Aaron........  3|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  2|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 9  Price, Andrew.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 16 Murray, Luke........  3|  1   0   2  .500| 18|  0   0|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  2|   1.5
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 63  23 136  .294| 61|  5  12|  8| 50| 3 20  4|  6|  81.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  4  25  .360   Site: Honolulu (Stan Sheriff Center)
   2  14  5  31  .290   Date: Jan 06, 2005   Attend:     Time: 2:32
   3  15  3  29  .414   Referees: Dickson Chun, Dan Hironaka
   4  15  7  37  .216   Length of Games - 0:27/0:31/0:28/0:29/0:16
   5   6  4  14  .143   11th Outrigger Volleyball Invitational
                        BYU "Cougars" vs. PENN STATE "Nittany Lions"

HONOLULU -- The defending NCAA National Champion BYU Cougar men's volleyball team will kick off the 2005 season with three matches at the Outrigger Tournament this week in Honolulu. BYU will square off against east coast and Midwest powers Penn State and Lewis University, and the University of Hawai'i, the tournament host.

"We're very excited to start the season," coach Tom Peterson said. "We've never played in the Outrigger Tournament before. It is a great opportunity to play in such a prestigious tournament."

The Cougars will be introducing a new lineup in Hawai'i after losing five starters from the 2004 National Championship team. Senior middle blocker Michael Burke and junior outside hitter Victor Batista are the two returning starters.

Burke hit for a team high .506 hitting percentage while finishing second in blocks at 1.17 per game. Batista led the team with 1.24 blocks per game and was second on the team with a .458 hitting percentage.

Several players will look to crack the lineup to help BYU maintain its winning tradition. The frontrunners include junior setter Rob Neilson, junior libero Brian Rowley, freshman outside hitter Ivan Perez, freshman middle blocker Russell Holmes, and junior opposite hitter Taylor Evans. Neilson and Evans are the only two with significant playing time.

"It will be interesting to see how they perform," Peterson said. "We are inexperienced but at the same time very talented."

The Lewis University Flyers will be the first opponent for the Cougars as the teams play Wednesday Jan. 5 at 4 p.m. HST. The Flyers are coming off their second consecutive trip to the NCAA Final Four, which they won in 2003. After winning the MIVA postseason tournament to earn a birth in 2004, Lewis lost to BYU in the NCAA Semifinals.

Senior outside hitter Jeff Soler and junior middle blocker Enrique Escalante return to lead the Flyers. Soler averaged 3.58 kills per game and 1.37 digs in 2004 while Escalante was second the team with a .406 hitting percentage. Escalante also contributed 1.14 kills per game.

The second match for the Cougars will be against Penn State on Friday at 4 p.m., the school where Peterson won his first national championship in 1994. Penn State also earned a birth to the 2004 NCAA Final Four by winning the EIVA postseason tournament. The Nittany Lions lost to Long Beach State in the semifinals.

The top-returning player for the Nittany Lions is senior middle blocker Keith Kowal. A First Team All-American, Kowal led the team with 3.83 kills per game while hitting a blistering .574. He also led the team with 1.39 per game.

BYU will conclude the Outrigger Tournament with a match against Hawai'i. The Warriors had a solid 2004 season, finishing 17-12 overall and 13-9 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Warriors' season ended with a loss to UCLA in the MPSF Tournament quarterfinals.

Senior outside hitter Delano Thomas, a 2004 Third Team All-MPSF honoree selection, will lead the Warriors. Thomas led the team with 4.00 kills per game while hitting .298. He led the MPSF with .690 aces per game in conference play.

The Cougars will be back in action Jan. 14 and 15 in Provo against the Cal Baptist Lancers of the NAIA.