Goodman and Dyer Named All-Tournament

LAS -- BYU's Mountain West Conference Tournament title hopes came to an end Saturday night as the Cougars fell to in-state rival Utah in the championship match. The five-game loss leaves No. 21 BYU with a 25-3 overall record and the hope of an at-large berth in the 2005 NCAA Tournament. This year's Tournament field will be announced Sunday at 12:30 p.m. MST on ESPNNews.

"I felt like we gave it everything we had but we came up short and that's disappointing," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "We feel good, however, that our season is not over and that we have a lot of volleyball left to play. That's encouraging."

Redshirt freshman Rachel Dyer led BYU in both kills and blocks with 17 offensive putaways and five rejections. All-MWC outside hitter Chelsea Goodman also had double-digit kills with 15 while adding 12 digs to record her 14th double-double of the season and fifth in the last six matches. Annie Kemp led the Cougars with 16 digs.

The Utes got off to a fast start in game one, keeping BYU, the nation's 14th-best hitting team, completely out of its offense while holding the Cougars to a .062 hitting percentage. BYU scored the first point of the match but never led again in game one, falling 30-21. Utah's Airial Salvo, the MWC Freshman of the Year, pounded six kills in the game while hitting .667.

Game two began with an identical 4-1 Utah lead, which the Utes built to 10-6. The Cougars had a chance to tie the game at 11-11 after a 4-1 run but could not capitalize and quickly found themselves trailing by four points once again at 14-10. BYU got a second chance at 16-15 and found the back corner of the Utah court, resulting in a Cougar point.

A huge block from Lexi Brown Patterson and Lindsy Hartsock on the next point capped the 5-0 BYU run and gave the Cougars their first lead since 1-0 in game one. The two teams battled back and forth from there with neither team able to gain more than a two-point advantage. Tied at 28-28, Rachel Dyer pounded two emphatic kills on the right side, giving BYU the gritty 30-28 win.

Trailing 8-6 in game three, Hartsock served four straight points, including two aces, to give BYU a 10-8 lead. That advantage was short-lived, however, as the Utes stormed back on an 8-3 run to turn the game 18-15 in their favor. That lead proved insurmountable for BYU as Utah scored eight of the last 11 points to win the game 30-23. The Cougars' hitting woes continued in the game as they racked up 12 attack errors combined with 17 kills on 37 swings to hit .135.

After getting off to another slow start, the Cougars put togther a 4-1 run to tie game four at 12-12, but did not have enough to overtake the Utes. While the game remained close with Utah owning no more than a three-point advantage until late in the game, BYU could not string together the points necessary to even the match and force a fifth game. Down 27-21, the Cougars attempted a late comeback with a 5-1 spurt to cut the lead to two but would get no closer as the Utes converted their first match point for the 30-26 victory.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                                  BYU COUGARS
          Utah vs #21 Brigham Young Univ. (Nov 26, 2005 at Las Vegas)
    Utah                   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  SOMMERFELDT, Shelly.  4| 17   8  44  .205|  1|  2   4|  0|  9| 1  3  0|  0|  21.5
 5  BAIRD, Lori.........  4|  8   5  34  .088|  0|  2   2|  0|  1| 0  9  3|  0|  14.5
 11 SALVO, Airial.......  4| 16   2  38  .368|  0|  0   0|  1|  8| 0  5  0|  0|  18.5
 12 KRUG, Shannon.......  4|  0   2   6 -.333| 54|  0   3|  0|  3| 0  4  0|  0|   2.0
 15 TOONE, Emillie......  4|  7   1  17  .353|  0|  0   0|  1|  1| 1  7  1|  0|  11.5
 17 WEBB, Whitney.......  4| 11   5  20  .300|  0|  0   0|  1| 11| 0  5  0|  0|  13.5
 9  LEICHLITER, Danielle  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  3   0|  2| 12| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 13 THEURER, Katie......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 16 ROBISON, Kate.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 59  23 159  .226| 55|  7  11|  7| 49| 2 33  4|  0|  84.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 18.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12  4  29  .276   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14 10  42  .095   Utah................ (3) 30 28 30 30  22-8
   3  12  2  29  .345   Brigham Young Univ.. (1) 22 30 23 26  25-3
   4  21  7  59  .237
    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
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  GOODMAN, Chelsea....  4| 15   8  38  .184|  0|  2   1|  2| 12| 0  3  0|  1|  18.5
 5  EVANS, Lauren.......  4|  5   4  14  .071| 53|  0   3|  0| 12| 0  2  1|  0|   6.0
 9  PATTERSON, Lexi.....  4|  7   9  22 -.091|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  4  2|  0|   9.0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  3|  7   9  26 -.077|  1|  0   0|  1|  5| 0  1  2|  0|   7.5
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  4|  5   2  12  .250|  1|  4   2|  0|  2| 0  5  0|  0|  11.5
 44 DYER, Rachel........  4| 17   5  29  .414|  0|  1   2|  0|  1| 0  5  1|  0|  20.5
 2  BEAUMONT, Janvier...  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   2|  2|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 3  EVANS, Lindsey......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2| 12| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 KEMP, Annie.........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  0| 16| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 13 PORTER, Bryn........  1|  4   2  18  .111|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  1|  0|   4.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 60  39 159  .132| 59|  7  10|  7| 68| 0 20  7|  1|  77.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12 10  32  .062   Site: Las Vegas (Cox Pavilion)
   2  17  9  37  .216   Date: Nov 26, 2005   Attend: 614   Time: 2H 10M
   3  17 12  37  .135   Referees: VERNA KLUBNIKIN, MARY BLALOCK
   4  14  8  53  .113

PROVO -- No. 21 BYU heads to the Mountain West Conference Tournament this week in Las Vegas as the No. 1 seed for the first time since the league's inaugural year in 1999. With the regular-season title already in hand, the Cougars are looking to make a strong showing and improve their 23-2 overall record by winning the tournament title that has eluded them since 2000.

"We look forward to the start of the Mountain West Conference Tournament," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "Our program has shown improvement over the course of the regular season and we feel good about our direction heading into the postseason."

Play for BYU begins on Thursday at 4 p.m. PST when the Cougars face the winner of Tuesday's play-in-game between the eighth-seeded TCU Horned Frogs and the ninth-seeded Air Force Falcons. BYU will then take on either fourth-seeded and tournament-host UNLV or fifth-seeded San Diego State on Friday at 5 p.m. The Cougars swept the season series with all four of their potential quarterfinal and semifinal opponents. The championship match will be played Saturday night at 8 p.m.

The Cougars have never lost in the opening round of the MWC Tournament and have advanced to the championship match in three of the league's six years. BYU is 10-5 all-time in the tournament and 2-1 as the No. 1 seed.

BYU will be playing for more than just the MWC tournament title this week as they look ahead to seeding in the NCAA Tournament, which begins Dec. 1 at locations to be determined. The Cougars have a good chance of hosting the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament if they perform well this week.

For the second year in a row, CSTV will provide coverage of the 2005 MWC Volleyball Championship, airing seven of the eight matches being played. Live coverage is available for every match of the Tournament with the exception of Tuesday's play-in-game, which will not be aired, and Friday's first semifinal, which will be aired tape-delayed at 10 p.m. PST. Bill Doleman will call the play-by-play while BYU's own Amy Gant will provide color commentary.

Fans of the Cougars can catch the action on the Sports Tier of Comcast Cable (Channel 269) or on the Digital Basic package of the Bresnan cable system (Channel 411). The Tournament will also be aired on DirecTV (Channel 610) and Dish Network (Channel 152). Live stats for all of BYU's tournament matches are available by going to the schedule page of BYU's women's volleyball homepage at http://www.byucougars.com/volleyball_w/.