FORT COLLINS -- The third-seeded Cougars advanced to the Mountain West Conference Championship semifinals for the sixth straight year with a three-game victory over the sixth-seeded San Diego State Aztecs Thursday afternoon. The 30-18, 30-28, 30-15 win is the eleventh sweep of the year for BYU and sets the Cougars up for a possible showdown with second-seeded and nationally-ranked Colorado State in the semifinal matchup.

"It wasn't our best match," said BYU head coach Karen Lamb. "I thought they pushed us and did some things to make is harder for us but we stepped it up and got a solid win. We feel good and we're ready to win the tournament."

Redshirt freshman Erica Lott led the Cougars with 15 kills and a .500 hitting percentage despite not playing the first game. Senior April Varner finished with 13 kills and a team-high 13 digs for her fourth double-double on the year while junior Lexi Brown added 12 kills. All-conference honorees Lindsy Hartsock and Lauren Richards led the Cougar blocking effort with four blocks apiece.

As a team, BYU hit .341 on 56 kills and only 11 errors while holding the Aztecs to just .086 hitting on 37 kills and 26 errors. With 8.5 blocks to SDSU's three, the Cougars out-blocked their opponent for the 22nd time this season, showing why they are currently ranked 10th in the nation in the blocking category.

Beginning with a San Diego State service error, the Cougars reeled off six straight points to start the match and took an early 10-2 lead in game one. The Aztecs put up four straight points of their own to get back to 10-6 but would get no closer as BYU opened up a 17-7 lead and never looked back, winning 30-18 on .417 hitting.

The Aztecs stormed back in game two, quickly opening up a 7-3 lead and keeping their distance from the Cougars. BYU was able to ties the game at 16, 19 and again at 23 but could not take the lead until an SDSU error gave the Cougars a 24-23 advantage. With four game points at 29-25, BYU committed three errors to make things interesting at 29-28. But a tremendous kill from Hartsock sealed the Cougars' 30-28 victory. Lott gave BYU a big lift in game two with ten of her 15 kills.

With the game two scare over, the Cougars returned to dominance in game three, scoring the first five points and taking an early 12-4 lead. Lott was once again unstoppable, slamming kills from all over the court as BYU took game three 30-15.

At 18-10 overall, the Cougars still have a lot of work to do to assure themselves of a bid to their 22nd postseason appearance. BYU will face the winner of the Colorado State-New Mexico quarterfinal match at 3:30 p.m. Friday afternoon in the tournament semifinals. Fans can watch the match live on BYUTV or CSTV at 3:30 or tape-delayed at 6 p.m. on KBYU. The Cougars are 56-7 all-time against the Lobos and won both regular-season matchups. Against the Rams, BYU is 44-17-1 all-time but lost both competitions this season, including a five-game heart-breaker last Friday night in Provo. History is on the Cougars' side, however, as they have beat Colorado State in the tournament both times the event has been held on the Rams' home court, once in 2002 to advance to the tournament finals and once in 2000 to win the title.

"We're here to win this tournament," Lamb said. "That's what we've been working for all year long. We control our own destiny and we're going to give it everything we have. We're focused on Colorado State and know that we can beat them."

                              Volleyball Box Score
                        Brigham Young University Cougars
    San Diego Aztecs vs Brigham Young (Nov 18, 2004 at Fort Collins, Colo.)
    San Diego Aztecs       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  MORIARTY, Kara......  3|  7   6  26  .038|  3|  0   0|  1| 13| 1  0  0|  0|   8.0
 3  BOWKER, Ashley......  3|  1   1   6  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  1|   1.5
 6  CASTILLO, Kristen...  3|  0   0   0  .000| 15|  0   1|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 8  MAHAN, Lindsey......  3|  2   3  15 -.067|  1|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   2.5
 9  STAPLEY, Melissa....  3| 13   7  37  .162|  0|  0   1|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0|  13.0
 10 DENT, Audra.........  3|  4   5  16 -.062|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0|   4.5
 5  CORDEIRO, Aime......  3|  2   0   4  .500|  9|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 11 GREENE, Melanie.....  3|  8   4  23  .174|  2|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0|   8.5
 12 DYKEMA, Kari........  3|  0   0   1  .000|  1|  2   0|  1| 10| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 37  26 128  .086| 31|  2   4|  2| 53| 1  4  1|  1|  42.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 3.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  9  46  .043   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  17  7  38  .263   San Diego Aztecs.... (0) 18 28 15  4-24
   3   9 10  44 -.023   Brigham Young....... (3) 30 30 30  18-10
    Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  VARNER, April.......  3| 13   2  29  .379|  0|  0   0|  1| 13| 0  2  0|  0|  14.0
 5  RICHARDS, Lauren....  3|  3   1  11  .182| 47|  0   1|  0|  8| 1  3  0|  3|   5.5
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  3|  3   0  10  .300|  4|  0   1|  0|  8| 0  1  2|  0|   3.5
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  2|  4   1   8  .375|  1|  1   0|  1|  6| 0  0  0|  0|   5.0
 9  BROWN, Lexi.........  3| 12   1  25  .440|  0|  0   1|  0|  5| 0  3  0|  0|  13.5
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  3|  6   3  16  .188|  0|  1   2|  0|  0| 0  4  0|  0|   9.0
 1  GOODMAN, Chelsea....  2|  0   1   7 -.143|  0|  0   2|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  2| 15   2  26  .500|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0|  16.0
 16 EVANS, Lindsey......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 17 POWELL, Stacie......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 56  11 132  .341| 53|  2   7|  2| 56| 1 15  2|  3|  66.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  2  36  .417   Site: Fort Collins, Colo. (Moby Arena)
   2  21  7  47  .298   Date: Nov 18, 2004   Attend:     Time: 1:34
   3  18  2  49  .327   Referees: Verna Klubnikin, Glenn Sapp
                        ID-315311
                                         1   2   3 Total
                        Tie scores       0   5   0     5
                        Lead changes     1   2   1     4

PROVO -- The Cougars head to Fort Collins, Colo., this week to the campus of Colorado State University for the 2004 Mountain West Conference Championships. Seeded No. 3 in the league, BYU will face No. 6 San Diego State in the quarterfinals Thursday at 4 p.m. before a possible semifinal matchup with second-seeded CSU, ranked No. 8 nationally, or seventh-seeded Wyoming. At 17-10 overall, the Cougars' NCAA tournament hopes ride on their performance this week, with the winner of the MWC crown earning an automatic NCAA bid.

"We think we need to win the conference tournament to get into the NCAAs," said BYU head coach Karen Lamb. "We control our future by winning the tournament and that's our plan. We're playing pretty well and we're just going to take it one match at a time."

For the fifth straight year, the MWC Volleyball Championship will be televised, with this season's tournament marking the first time ever that all seven championship matches will be made available to a national audience by College Sports Television (CSTV). The MWC will be the only conference to have all matches from its conference championship nationally televised.

Fans of the Cougars can catch the action with programming provided by KBYU and BYUTV. The Cougars' first match, against San Diego State, will be shown live nationally on BYUTV and then shown tape-delayed at 9:30 p.m. on CSTV and 10:30 p.m. on KBYU. If the Cougars advance to Friday's semi-final match, that match will also be broadcast live on BYUTV and tape-delayed at 6 p.m. on KBYU. Saturday's championship match may also be broadcast. Fans can contact KBYU for further details regarding the precise broadcast schedule.

BYU's first round opponent could prove tough as everyone vies for the automatic bid. The Aztecs are 4-23 overall and 4-10 in the MWC with wins over Wyoming, New Mexico and Air Force. SDSU is fifth in the league in blocks with 2.55 per game and is led by senior Kara Moriarty, who is fourth in the league in kills (3.48), junior Ashley Bowker, fourth in blocks (1.33), and freshman Aime Cordeiro, fourth in digs (3.52). The Cougars are 29-15 all-time against the Aztecs, including two sweeps this season. The two teams have never met in the MWC tournament.

In both of their possible semifinal matchups, the Cougars will be facing familiar opponents, having ended the regular-season last weekend with home matches against the Rams and the Cowgirls. BYU suffered a heart-breaking five-game loss to then-No. 10 Colorado State 30-18, 25-30, 34-36, 30-25, 15-17 and recorded a sweep of the Wyoming Cowgirls, 30-18, 30-20, 30-23.

Several Cougars shined in the CSU loss as Lauren Richards and Lindsy Hartsock each recorded career-highs in blocks with 13 apiece and Lindsey Metcalf hit a season-high 15 kills. Adding 48 assists in the match, Richards recorded her team and MWC-leading eleventh double-double while Metcalf posted back-to-back double-doubles on the weekend with 15 kills and 17 digs against the Rams and 12 kills and 12 digs versus the Cowgirls. The senior hitter also recorded a career-high hitting percentage with a .611 mark against Wyoming.

The Cougars are certainly not strangers to Moby Arena on the campus of Colorado State. The Rams have hosted the MWC tournament in two previous years, 2000 and 2002. BYU is 5-1 in those years, winning the title in 2000 and losing in the championship match in 2002. The Cougars defeated the Rams on their home court in both tournaments.