PROVO -- After upsetting No. 4 Stanford in four games Friday night and rolling over Texas A&M Corpus Christi early Saturday afternoon, BYU capped off an undefeated weekend with a convincing three-game win over Virginia Commonwealth University to clinch the Molten Classic trophy. Erica Lott was named Tournament MVP while fellow Cougars Lindsy Hartsock and Amy Schlauder were named to the All-Tournament team.

"I think we're progressing at a rate that is really quite nice," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "It's more than performance, but composure."

Chelsea Goodman racked up her third double-double in six matches with 10 kills and 10 digs, and Lott got her first double-double of the season with 13 kills and a career-high 10 blocks. After the match Watson lauded many of his players, saying that Janvier Beaumont had done exceptionally well at the libero position all week and setter Amy Schlauder has stepped up to fill big shoes.

Despite a valiant effort, VCU's five blocks and .120 hitting percentage could not stack up against BYU's 13 blocks and .337 hitting percentage. The Cougars also racked up 45 kills and 46 digs in the victory.

Game one began as a balanced duel with both teams struggling to find holes but neither team pulling away. With a 25-22 lead, however, the Cougars surged as Hartsock gave her team the push it needed to close out the victory. With an amazing dig and an assisted block with outside hitter Kim Wilson to secure the final two points, Hartsock helped the Cougars seal game one with a score of 30-22 and set the tone for the rest of the night.

Goodman stepped up in game two to lead BYU to a 30-21 victory and was again a spark for her teammates. She tallied three kills and four digs in the game to add to her vocal leadership on the court while Hartsock and Lott had five and four assisted blocks, respectively, to shut down the Rams' attack.

"It was just another Goodman performance," Watson said. "She's fun to watch, and she inspires us to be better."

The Cougars took the lead early in the third game and never looked back. The Rams fought hard, but the Cougars were too polished to be brought down. Goodman had three kills and Beaumont had two key digs as BYU marched to another 30-21 victory.

The win over VCU brings BYU's record this year to 6-0 with five sweeps. The Cougars' next match is Thursday against Kansas at the Jayhawk Invitational. The game will start at 7 p.m. CT and can be heard on BYU Radio.

No. 4 Stanford Sweeps Texas A&M CC

PROVO -- In its final match at the BYU Molten Classic, No. 4 Stanford (3-1) defeated Texas A&M Corpus Christi (1-6) in three games.

With a hitting percentage of .364, the Cardinal swept the match with scores of 30-12, 30-15 and 30-20. Stanford came out quickly in the first and second games. The third game was a closer battle, however the Cardinal never lost its lead.

Stanford had a total of 12 team blocks and held Texas A&M CC to a .048 hitting percentage.

Kristin Richards led the Cardinal with 11 kills and a .429 hitting percentage, while Cynthia Barboza contributed nine kills.

The Islanders were led by Christie Feliz, who recorded seven kills.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                                  BYU Cougars
            VCU vs BYU Cougars (Sep 02, 2006 at Smith Fieldhouse BYU)
    VCU                    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Juson, Catherine....  3|  1   0   2  .500| 20|  1   2|  0|  5| 0  1  0|  2
 5  De Borja, Ana Luiza.  3|  8   2  23  .261|  0|  1   2|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  1
 8  Peterson, Melissa...  3|  7   0  14  .500|  0|  0   1|  1|  0| 0  3  0|  0
 9  Francescatto, L.....  3| 10  11  36 -.028|  1|  0   3|  2|  4| 1  0  0|  0
 10 Kuehnel, Elisa......  3|  4   6  20 -.100|  0|  1   2|  1|  1| 0  1  0|  0
 15 Salvatori, Renata...  3|  9   4  19  .263|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 2  Burnette, Erin......  2|  0   2   3 -.667|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 4  Goncalves, Laryssa..  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  1| 12| 0  0  0|  0
 12 Rich, Ivana.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 13 Keebaugh, Shannon...  3|  0   0   0  .000| 12|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 39  25 117  .120| 34|  3  11|  5| 25| 1  8  0|  3
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14 10  38  .105   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  11 10  38  .026   VCU-1............... (0) 22 21 21  3-3; 0-0; CAA
   3  14  5  41  .220   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 30 30  6-0; 0-0; MWC
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  GOODMAN, Chelsea....  3| 10   4  19  .316|  0|  3   3|  0| 10| 0  2  0|  0
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  3|  8   3  16  .312|  0|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  1  0|  0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  3| 13   4  27  .333|  0|  1   2|  0|  6| 0 10  0|  0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  3|  6   2  15  .267|  2|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  9  1|  0
 15 SCHLAUDER, Amy......  3|  2   0   2 1.000| 39|  0   0|  0|  8| 0  0  1|  0
 44 DYER, Rachel........  3|  6   2  10  .400|  0|  0   0|  1|  0| 0  4  0|  0
 2  BEAUMONT, Janvier...  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  1|  7| 0  0  0|  0
 11 PINEGAR, Annie......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  1   0|  0| 10| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 45  15  89  .337| 42|  5   7|  3| 46| 0 26  2|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  3  30  .400   Site: Smith Fieldhouse BYU (Elaine Michaelis)
   2  14  8  31  .194   Date: Sep 02, 2006   Attend: 801   Time: 1h 30m
   3  16  4  28  .429   Referees: Daphne Nelson, Bruce Grant, Karen Marshall

PROVO -- The BYU women's volleyball team will host the BYU Molten Classic this Friday and Saturday in the Smith Fieldhouse, marking the Cougars' home debut. With matches against preseason No. 4 Stanford (1-0), Virginia Commonwealth (2-1) and Texas A&M Corpus Christi (2-1), the Cougars (3-0) will look to continue their solid start to the season and make some noise on the national scene.

"We're looking forward to our home tournament," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "Last weekend enabled us to identify some areas we need to upgrade. This weekend will provide us an opportunity to measure our improvement in a competitive tournament."

The event will kickoff on Friday at 4 p.m. with Virginia Commonwealth facing Texas A&M Corpus Christi. BYU will take on the Stanford Cardinal, ranked No. 4 in the nation in preseason polls, on Friday night at 7 p.m., a match that will be broadcast on BYU-TV. Saturday's matches begin at 10 a.m. with VCU vs. Stanford and then continue with BYU vs. Texas A&M CC at 12 p.m., Stanford vs. Texas A&M CC at 5 p.m. and then BYU vs. VCU at 7 p.m. to end the tournament.

Preseason tournaments hosted by BYU have been a tradition since 1977. With the exception of two years, 1993 and 1999, the Cougars have hosted at least one tournament each year. Although the name of the marquee event has evolved over the years from the BYU Preview to the BYU Invitational to the BYU Mizuno Classic to the current BYU Molten Classic, the premise has always been the same -- to gather top teams from around the country for intense competition. BYU has now hosted 33 tournaments in 27 years, winning 18 titles along the way. A total of 36 players have won 44 all-tournament awards including 13 MVP selections.

There have been many Cougar highlights, but one of the top moments in BYU tournament history was when BYU upended No. 1 Stanford before defeating No. 2 Long Beach State to take the 2000 tournament title.

BYU began the 2006 season in fine form at the UCF Fall Invitational hosted by the University of Central Florida last weekend. The Cougars brought home the tournament title with three straight sweeps of Florida International (30-28, 30-26, 30-24), UCF (30-25, 30-16, 30-18) and Stetson (30-13, 30-20, 30-25). BYU hit .348 for the week while holding opponents to a .158 percentage.

Junior rightside hitter Erica Lott took MVP honors as she led the team with 15 kills against UCF and 18 against Stetson on .556 hitting. Senior Lindsy Hartsock joined Lott on the All-Tournament team as she hit .593 for the weekend and averaged 1.62 blocks per game.