Romeoville, Ill. (Jan. 19, 2008) -- Senior All-American Ivan Perez led the No. 1 BYU volleyball team to a 3-2 (23-30, 30-18, 26-30, 30-20, 15-13) victory Saturday night over Lewis University. For the second night in a row, Perez alone claimed 20 kills.

"Winning tonight in a very close match proves that we have worked on poise and can make plays when it counts," said BYU Head Coach Shawn Patchell.

In addition to his 20 kills, Perez hit .368 and grabbed 11 digs against the Flyers.

"[Ivan] Perez is kind of our go-to when we need to score points," Patchell said. "Reed [Chilton] did a nice job distributing the ball to him, but it wasn't obvious that we went to Perez exclusively. Perez improved his passing tonight and that is what helped us win the game."

Two other Cougars enjoyed double-digit figures on the night. Senior Russell Holmes claimed 13 kills and senior opposite Jonathan Charette had 15 of his own. Trent Sorensen, senior, followed with nine kills and hit .750. As a team, the Cougars had 66 kills, 38 digs, 65 assists and hit .328.

The Cougars found it difficult to keep up with the Flyers' energy in the first game, trailing the entire game. Though BYU made one last attempt, going on an unanswered five-point run, the Cougars ended up falling short (23-30).

BYU found its rhythm in game two. With a .328 attack percentage, BYU solidified its 30-18 win with a kill by Wright. BYU scored the first point of game three, but Lewis found its momentum and never looked back. The Cougars stayed within five points the entire game, but the effort to stay with the Flyers was not enough to take game three (26-30).

Jumping out to an early lead in game four, BYU solidified a 30-20 win with 14 kills respectively. Lewis quickly took control in game five. BYU fought to close the gap. The Cougars tied the game at 13-13 and took the lead with a kill by Perez, his 20th of the game. The Cougars solidified the match victory with a 15-13 win.

"Lewis played incredibly well," Patchell said. "They played almost flawless, and they played well enough to beat BYU. I am proud of my guys. They hung in there and played phenomenal tonight.

The Cougars will continue road play Monday, Jan. 21, as they face No. 14 Loyola-Chicago at 7 p.m. CST.

Volleyball Box Score
                             BYU  Cougar VolleyBall
          #1 Brigham Young vs LEWIS (Jan 19, 2008 at Romeoville, Ill.)
   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  CHILTON, Reed.......  5|  2   2   4  .000| 59|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  3  0|  0
7  SORENSEN, Trent.....  5|  9   0  12  .750|  1|  2   2|  0|  1| 1  5  0|  0
8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  5| 20   6  38  .368|  1|  1   6|  0| 11| 0  1  0|  0
11 HOLMES, Russell.....  5| 13   4  20  .450|  1|  0   2|  0|  0| 1  3  0|  0
13 CHARETTE, Jonathan..  5| 15   5  33  .303|  0|  2   5|  0|  7| 0  4  0|  0
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  5|  7   5  22  .091|  1|  0   1|  1|  6| 0  3  0|  0
1  TUTTLE, Kent........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
6  SILVA, Joel.........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  8| 0  0  0|  0
10 TAYLOR, Mat.........  2|  0   0   3  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  1|  0   0   2  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
16 JUSTEN, Leandro.....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  5| 66  22 134  .328| 65|  5  19|  1| 38| 2 19  0|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  7  38  .184   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  18  3  29  .517   Brigham Young....... (3) 23 30 26 30 15  4-0
   3  13  8  26  .192   LEWIS............... (2) 30 18 30 20 13  2-2
   4  14  3  28  .393
   5   7  1  13  .462
   LEWIS                  |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3  Vigansky, Alex......  5| 15   4  24  .458|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 1  3  0|  0
4  Dayton, Jared.......  5| 15   9  33  .182|  2|  0   1|  0|  7| 0  1  0|  0
10 Kelnhofer, David....  5| 10  10  33  .000|  0|  1   0|  0|  6| 2  2  0|  0
11 Iandolo, Mike.......  5|  2   1   6  .167| 51|  0   6|  0|  5| 2  1  0|  1
14 Sahagian, Billy.....  5| 11   3  18  .444|  1|  0   4|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0
22 Pickering, Drew.....  5| 14   5  30  .300|  1|  0   4|  2|  5| 1  2  0|  0
1  Perakes, Nick.......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  3| 12| 0  0  0|  0
2  Conrad, Jake........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
8  Muesenfechter, Brian  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
13 Garvey, Tom.........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  5| 67  32 144  .243| 58|  1  20|  5| 37| 6 11  0|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  4  39  .385   Site: Romeoville, Ill. (Neil carey Arena)
   2  10  7  31  .097   Date: Jan 19, 2008   Attend: 875   Time: 2:25
   3  17  8  26  .346   Referees: Jim Kuziela, Justin Basovsky, Looie Green
   4  11  9  31  .065
   5  10  4  17  .353

PROVO -- The No. 1 BYU men's volleyball team (2-0, 2-0) will play at No. 10 Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne (0-1), Lewis (1-1), and No. 14 Loyola-Chicago (1-0) on Thursday, Friday, and Monday, respectively, as they try to remain undefeated in the young season.

Returning to the lineup after stints with their respective national teams will be sophomore libero Joel Silva (Venezuela) and senior outside hitter and 2007 All-American Ivan Perez (Puerto Rico).

The Cougars beat UC San Diego in two matches last weekend to start the season. The upcoming matches are the last before the team hosts its first home matches of the season Jan. 25 and 26 against Cal Baptist. BYU also holds a collective lifetime record of 12-5 against IPFW, Lewis, and Loyola Chicago.

Live audio will be available for the match at IPFW, and live stats and streaming video will be available for the match at Lewis. Links to both can be found on the BYU men's volleyball page at www.byucougars.com/volleyball_m/. Please see the attached PDF document for more information.