LAS -- In the classic battle volleyball fans were expecting, BYU's Mountain West Conference Tournament title hopes came to an end in a five-game (35-33, 22-30, 31-29, 24-30, 16-14) loss at second-seeded UNLV on Friday night. The Cougars will now hope for an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament when selections are announced Sunday at 6 p.m. MT on ESPNU.

Senior Chelsea Goodman led the Cougars with 22 kills while Ashton Hansen posted a career high with 18, Bryn Porter tallied 16, Rachel Dyer contributed 16 and Erica Lott added 12. Three Cougars topped the 20-dig mark for the first time this season as Pinegar recorded 31, tying for the fifth-most in program history, Goodman notched a season-high 26 and Lott contributed a career-best 21. BYU recorded 100 team digs, the third-most by a Cougar team since the beginning of rally-scoring in 2001.

After an early 3-1 UNLV lead in game one, the Cougars took the lead at 6-5 and managed to stay one step ahead to a 10-8 advantage. However, on a platy that resulted in a kill from Goodman, Lott went down with a twisted ankle and came out of the match. The Rebels scored back-to-back points as BYU adjusted to the new line-up, but the Cougars quickly rallied to push the lead to 13-10. Trailing 17-14 and with Lott still on the sidelines, UNLV made its move, scoring five straight to regain the lead at 19-17.

Lott re-entered the match for BYU, but the momentum stayed in the Rebels' favor to game point at 29-27. But Porter and Hansen responded with back-to-back kills to tie the game at 29-29. After a long rally, Dyer put up a block to give BYU a game-point opportunity, but the Rebels evened it up with a cross-court kill. The game see-sawed from there with chances for both sides to close it out until BYU finally did with a kill from Dyer and a Rebel hitting error to take game one 35-33.

The Rebels came out strong in game two, scoring the first four points before Hansen got BYU on the scoreboard with a kill down the middle. The UNLV lead grew to 10 points at 18-8 as the Cougars struggled to turn balls in transition and had no answer for the Rebel attack. Trailing 25-13, BYU began to find a groove, scoring nine of the final 14 points, but the early hole proved too much for the Cougars to overcome as they fell 30-22.

Game three was a battle early on until UNLV scored three straight to take a 12-9 lead. The advantage grew to 16-12 before BYU went on a 4-0 spurt including two kills from Goodman to tie the game. Moments later, Dyer gave the Cougars their first lead of the game with back-to-back kills to put BYU up 20-18 and prompt a UNLV timeout. The Rebels scored seven of the next nine to go up 25-23, but the Cougars refused to do down without a fight as BYU put together a 6-1 run of its own to get to game point at 29-26. UNLV fought off all three game-enders to tie the score at 29-29 before Porter finally put down the game-winner to give BYU a 31-29 win.

The Cougars jumped out to a 5-1 lead in game four, but the Rebels quickly responded to tie the game at 5-5 and renew the battle. Hansen set her career high in kills on the next ball with a winner down the middle, the first of three straight Cougar scores to put them up 8-5. The lead stretched to 14-10 until a 3-0 Rebel run gave them a chance to tie at 14-13. Lott put down a winner for BYU to stave off UNLV on the next ball, but the Rebels managed to take the lead at 19-18 after a 5-1 run and set up a fight to the finish. The Cougars scored the next two but suddenly found themselves trailing 25-20 after a 6-0 Rebel run. Facing elimination on its home floor, UNLV finished strong to post a 30-24 win and force a fifth game.

For the second time in as many days, the Cougars faced a game-five race to 15 points to decide their fate. With momentum being a key factor in game-five situations, the Rebels went up early at 3-1 and 5-3. However, back-to-back kills from Goodman put the Cougars in front 6-5. But after scoring five of the next six, the Rebels held a 10-7 lead as the match inched to a close. Trailing 14-11, the Cougars fought off two match points with back-to-back blocks and a Porter kill but fell 16-14 on a net call.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                                Wyoming vs. BYU
                BYU Cougars vs UNLV (Nov 23 at Las Vegas, Nev.)
    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....  5| 22   8  64  .219|  0|  0   2|  1| 26| 0  2  0|  0|  23.0
 4  HANSEN, Ashton......  5| 18   2  28  .571|  4|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  6  1|  0|  21.0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  5| 12   6  36  .167|  0|  2   3|  4| 21| 0  5  0|  0|  16.5
 13 PORTER, Bryn........  5| 16   5  57  .193|  3|  1   1|  6|  5| 0  4  0|  0|  19.0
 15 SCHLAUDER, Amy......  5|  0   0   3  .000| 69|  0   0|  0| 12| 0  1  0|  2|   0.5
 44 DYER, Rachel........  5| 16   5  35  .314|  3|  0   1|  0|  5| 2  6  1|  0|  21.0
 11 PINEGAR, Annie......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1| 32| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 12 PARKER, Catherine...  1|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  1|  0|   0.5
 20 JUDKINS, Jenna......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 84  26 224  .259| 80|  3   7| 12|101| 2 25  3|  2| 101.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  6  48  .292   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  16  8  53  .151   BYU Cougars......... (2) 35 22 31 24 14  21-7
   3  21  4  46  .370   UNLV................ (3) 33 30 29 30 16  23-5
   4  17  5  40  .300
   5  10  3  37  .189
    UNLV                   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  LUMSDEN, Brittani...  5|  8   8  27  .000|  1|  0   2|  2| 15| 0  1  1|  0|   8.5
 3  NUA, Melody.........  5|  1   2   8 -.125| 67|  1   1|  0|  8| 0  2  0|  1|   3.0
 6  ALADJOVA, Maria.....  5| 12   4  47  .170|  3|  0   1|  0| 18| 0  2  0|  0|  13.0
 10 MIRAMONTES, Lauren..  5| 34   9  86  .291|  1|  1   1|  0|  3| 3  4  0|  0|  40.0
 15 WALTERS, Jessica....  5| 10   2  18  .444|  0|  3   0|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0|  13.0
 18 GREENWOOD, Erin.....  5| 22   5  51  .333|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 1  3  0|  0|  24.5
 4  CUNNINGHAM, Camille.  5|  1   0   2  .500|  2|  2   0|  1| 15| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 7  WALKER, Jada........  5|  1   0   2  .500|  5|  5   0|  0| 32| 0  0  0|  0|   6.0
 9  NOLAND, Samantha....  4|  1   0   3  .333|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 1  2  0|  1|   3.0
 12 MORAN, Gerryn.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 90  30 244  .246| 79| 12   6|  3| 99| 5 14  1|  2| 114.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  22 12  62  .161   Site: Las Vegas, Nev. (Cox Pavilion)
   2  17  3  50  .280   Date: Nov 23         Attend:     Time: 2h 54m
   3  19  6  53  .245   Referees: Glen Sapp, Verna klubnikin, Linda Orr
   4  21  5  46  .348
   5  11  4  33  .212

BYU will be playing in the Mountain West Conference Tournament this week with an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament on the line. The Cougars finished the regular season tied for second in the league with UNLV and will be the third seed in this week's event, hosted by the Rebels at Cox Pavilion.

The Cougars will begin play with a quarterfinal matchup against sixth-seeded New Mexico on Thursday at 11 a.m. PT (12 p.m. MT), which will be shown live on The Mtn. Should BYU advance in the tournament, a semifinal match against second-seeded UNLV or seventh-seeded Wyoming would await the Cougars on Friday at 3:30 p.m. PT (4:30 p.m. MT), also live on The Mtn.

TICKETS

Those wishing to attend the tournament can purchase tickets on a daily basis or buy an all-session pass. Individual day prices are set at $5 for youth 12 and under, seniors 50 and over and students from participating institutions and $7 for the general public. All-session passes are set at $15 for youth and seniors and $25 for all others. Tickets can be purchased by calling 702.739.FANS (3267) or logging onto UNLVTickets.com.

TV

The 2007 Mountain West Conference Volleyball Championship will be televised, with The Mtn. - MountainWest Sports Network and CSTV providing the coverage. All four of Thursday's quarterfinal matches and Friday's first semifinal contest will be shown live on The Mtn., with the second semifinal to be shown via same-day tape delay at 7 p.m. (PT). For the fourth straight season, the MWC Tournament championship match on Saturday at 8 p.m. (PT) will be broadcast live nationally on CSTV.

To supplement CSTV's national coverage, the championship contest will also be streamed live as part of the CSTV All-Access package, available on the CSTV (www.cstv.com) and MWC ( www.themwc.com) Web sites.