PROVO -- The No. 23 BYU women's volleyball team ran into a buzzsaw Saturday night, falling 30-22, 26-30, 24-30, 25-30 to New Mexico in the Smith Fieldhouse. The loss drops the Cougars to 11-5 overall and 4-3 in the Mountain West Conference while New Mexico improved to 13-5 overall and 4-2 in league play.

"We just weren't as prepared and focused on some very specific details that we needed to take care of," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "New Mexico played a very competitive match."

Cougar middle blocker Rachel Dyer led the way for BYU offensively with 17 kills on .448 hitting and was one of three Cougars with four blocks, including Erica Lott and Ashton Hansen. Senior Chelsea Goodman was right behind Dyer with 16 kills to go along with 12 digs, her 11th double-double of the season and 45th of her career. Lott also posted a double-double with 12 kills and a team-best 13 digs.

New Mexico started the match hot with a 6-4 lead until a kill down the line from Erica Lott sparked a 4-0 Cougar run. BYU extended the advantage to as many as five points at 17-12 but saw the Lobos come back with three straight scores of their own. A solo block from Bryn Porter ended the UNM run and swung the momentum back in the Cougars' favor as they again led by five at 23-18. From there, it was all BYU as the Cougars cruised to the 30-22 win.

Game two was a battle early on as neither team was able to go up by more than one point. BYU finally did it with three straight points to take an 11-9 advantage but UNM came right back to go up 13-12. Back-to-back kills from Goodman and Dyer put the Cougars on top 16-14, but moments later it was 26-21 in favor of the Lobos as the BYU offense sputtered. Watson tried a new setter, putting Kiana Rogers into the match, but it wasn't enough as UNM posted the 30-26 win.

After the Lobos scored three of the first four points of game three, BYU responded with a 4-1 run and managed to stay one step ahead of UNM to a 10-8 lead. However, the Lobos scored the next five points to build a 13-10 advantage and put the Cougars on their heels. BYU battled back to tie the game at 14-14 on a tremendous block by Porter and Dyer and were soon back in front, 20-16, after two high-flying kills from Goodman. But the Lobos pushed back with everything they could, putting together a 9-1 run to take a commanding 26-21 lead from which the Cougars could not recover, falling 30-24.

UNM again came out of the gate strong to start game four, building a 5-1 lead. The Cougars fought back to get within one at 7-6, but the Lobos kept their composure and increased their advantage to 13-10. Porter finally tied the game for BYU at 14-14, but four straight UNM points had the Cougars staring defeat in the face. Still trailing 21-18, BYU found some momentum, scoring three straight points capped by an ace from Goodman to tie the game at 21-21. However, New Mexico refused to let the victory slip away, scoring nine of the last 13 points to seal the 30-25 win.

BYU will face two in-state rivals next week as the Cougars take on Utah Valley Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse before heading up the road to play at Utah on Friday. The UVU match will be aired live on BYUTV while the Utah match will be available via BYU Radio, BYU All-Access and GameTracker.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                                  BYU Cougars
          New Mexico vs #23 BYU Cougars (Oct 06, 2007 at Provo, Utah)
    New Mexico             |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  MEETER, Lisa........  4| 14   6  42  .190|  4|  1   2|  2| 15| 0  3  0|  0|  16.5
 4  KWASIGROCH, Sarah...  4|  0   0   0  .000|  4|  1   0|  1|  5| 0  0  0|  1|   1.0
 7  MICHAELSEN, Jade....  4|  7   3  16  .250| 38|  0   0|  0| 11| 1  3  1|  3|   9.5
 10 FAIRCHILD, Jeanne...  4| 13   8  31  .161|  2|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  5  0|  0|  15.5
 14 LEHNE, Anna.........  4| 11   0  16  .688|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  6  1|  0|  14.0
 15 BECK, Kerri.........  4|  2   1  10  .100|  1|  2   3|  0|  0| 0  4  0|  0|   6.0
 1  TRIPP, Gayle........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  2   2|  1|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 9  SUITER, Allie.......  2|  2   0   4  .500|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0|   3.0
 12 HADFIELD, Taylor....  4|  6   2  16  .250|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0|   6.5
 13 PHILLIPS, Kelsi.....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1| 11| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 55  20 135  .259| 52|  6   8|  5| 52| 1 24  3|  4|  74.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  4  29  .241   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15 10  40  .125   New Mexico.......... (3) 22 30 30 30  13-5, 4-2 MWC
   3  11  3  28  .286   BYU Cougars......... (1) 30 26 24 25  11-5, 4-3 MWC
   4  18  3  38  .395
    BYU Cougars            |     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| 16   4  42  .286|  0|  2   2|  0| 12| 0  1  0|  0|  18.5
 4  HANSEN, Ashton......  4|  7   6  17  .059|  0|  0   0|  1|  1| 0  4  0|  1|   9.0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  4| 12  13  32 -.031|  1|  0   4|  3| 13| 0  4  2|  0|  14.0
 13 PORTER, Bryn........  4|  9   4  28  .179|  2|  1   3|  1|  6| 1  2  0|  0|  12.0
 15 SCHLAUDER, Amy......  2|  0   0   2  .000| 25|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  1|   0.5
 44 DYER, Rachel........  4| 17   4  29  .448|  2|  1   3|  0|  2| 0  4  1|  0|  20.0
 9  ROGERS, Kiana.......  3|  3   0   6  .500| 31|  1   0|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  3|   4.5
 11 PINEGAR, Annie......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   2|  1| 12| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 64  31 156  .212| 62|  5  14|  6| 49| 1 17  3|  5|  78.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  7  40  .325   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  11  8  38  .079   Date: Oct 06, 2007   Attend: 1211   Time: 2H 9M
   3  16 10  40  .150   Referees: JOHN MARTIN, MAILE JEWKES, Karen Marshall/AU/SN
   4  17  6  38  .289

PROVO -- After playing 10 of its first 14 matches on the road, the No. 23 BYU women's volleyball team will return home this weekend for a pair of Mountain West Conference matches. The Cougars, 10-4 overall and 3-2 in the MWC, will face TCU on Friday at 7 p.m. before taking on New Mexico Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.

"This is another important weekend of volleyball for us in the hunt for the Mountain West Conference title," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "TCU and New Mexico have both done well in the preseason. We're excited to be playing in the Smith Fieldhouse again and hope our fans will come out and support us."

Playing on Elaine Michaelis Court will be a welcome change for the Cougars this weekend as their 10 road matches is the most through the end of September since 1997. The Cougars have gone 3-1 in the Smith Fieldhouse this season and are averaging 1,708 fans, 17th in the nation, including the fourth-largest crowd in BYU women's volleyball history with 3,880 fans against No. 10 Wisconsin in the Cougars? home opener.

BYU swept through the weekend last week with two road wins at Wyoming (30-28, 31-29, 30-21) and at Air Force (30-17, 30-21, 30-27), the Cougars' first league sweeps of the year. Cougar middle blocker Rachel Dyer had a solid weekend as she averaged 4.00 kills per game on .564 hitting while adding 1.67 blocks per contest. On the year, Dyer ranks fifth in the nation and leads the MWC hitting .451 while ranking eighth in the league in blocks at 1.15 per game. She has posted double-digit kills in 11 of 14 matches, including the last five.

The Horned Frogs are 15-4 overall this season and 2-2 in conference play after losing to New Mexico last week. TCU is led by sophomore middle blocker Kourtney Edwards with 3.51 kills per game followed closely by sophomore outside hitter Lauren Otto at 3.33 kpg and senior outside hitter LeMeita Smith at 3.21 kpg. BYU is 9-0 all-time against TCU.

The Lobos are off to one of their best starts in program history at 12-4 overall and 3-1 in the league. Their 12 total victories is the second-highest total by a Lobo team since the formation of the MWC in 1999, and their three league victories already puts them halfway to matching the most MWC wins by a Lobo volleyball team (6 in 2005). Junior outside hitter Jeanne Fairchild paces New Mexico and the conference with 4.68 kills per game, 36th in the nation, while ranking second in the MWC in points (5.16). The Cougars are 58-7 all-time against the Lobos.

Both matches will be available live via live stats. BYU vs. TCU will also be available on BYU All-Access. The move from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. for the New Mexico match was done to accommodate the Saturday evening session of the biannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that will be held this weekend.