PROVO -- In the final round of the BYU Nike Classic, No. 23 Kansas State secured its first-place finish beating out the BYU women’s volleyball team in five games, (25-21, 22-25, 25-19, 17-25, 15-11).

"The girls played hard and made some great plays, but it just wasn't enough for the win," said BYU head coach Shay Goulding. "We filled the stat sheets, but we just didn't come out on top this time, but I am very pleased with the way our program is going. We have shown a lot of improvement since Tuesday and I am anxious to see how the season turns out."

Kelsey Chipman from Kansas State was named the tournament MVP. BYU’s senior Kayla Walker and sophomore Christie Carpenter were named to the All-Tournament team. Joining the Cougars were JuliAnne Chisholm and Soriana Pacheco from Kansas State and Holly Franks from Cal Poly.

Game one began with back-and-forth points until Kansas State went on a five-point run bringing the score to 8-3. The Cougars put a stop to the run narrowing the gap and taking its first lead of the game at 16-13. After being tied at 19-19, Kansas State went on a four-point run tying the game at 19-19. The Wildcats built up more momentum sealing the deal with a final score of 25-21.

The Wildcats took an early lead in game two after senior middle blocker Chipman landed two solid kills for Kansas State. BYU put an end to the run, taking a lead of its own with a kill from junior middle blocker Christina Measom, placing the score at 12-10 for the Cougars. A four-point run by the Wildcats tied the game 19-19, but it was the Cougars who solidified the win 25-22.

Neither team was able to land a strong lead starting off game three, but a tie at 9-9 paved the way for a four-point leading run for the Wildcats. It was BYU’s Walker who put an end to the lead with a kill bringing the score to 13-10 for Kansas State. The energy continued to build for the Cougars as they closed into the Wildcats’ lead trailing by only two points at 21-19. Unable to push further, BYU fell to Kansas State for a final score of 25-19.

It was the Cougars who took charge early on in game four as a kill from Walker landed a 6-2 lead over the Wildcats. A huge kill by Measom carried the Cougar lead to 14-9, while freshman middle blocker Nicole Warner landed a kill bringing BYU to 16-11. A KSU hitting error and back-to-back kills from Walker brought the Cougars to a seven-point lead, 21-14. Despite the three-point run by the Wildcats, BYU secured the win 25-17.

The final game began with BYU leading 4-0 until KSU went on a seven-point run taking the lead, 7-4. Earning her 10th kill of the night, Wildcat freshman Kathleen Ludwig brought the score to 10-8 for KSU. A huge kill by Measom caught BYU up, trailing by three at 14-11 for KSU. Unfortunately the Cougars could not hold on with the final score of the match ending at 15-11 for the Wildcats.

It was night of records for the Cougars as Walker recorded a double-double with 14 kills and 17 digs. Warner tallied a career-high in kills with 12, while sophomore Casey Speredon Thurston also landed a career-high with nine kills. Morgan Lloyd Sorensen also recorded a career-high with 24 digs.

The Cougars next head to Nebraska to play in the Nebraska Tournament to take on UCLA, Nebraska and Virginia September 10-12.

Cal Poly Earns First Win of the Season

In the second-to-last match of the Nike Classic, Cal Poly came away with its first win of the season, taking it 3-2 over Weber State (25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 28-15, 15-11).

The beginning of set one was back-and-forth until the Wildcats were down three and came out with a 5-0 run ending at 12-10. The Mustangs were down until a solo block by Dominique Olowolafe knotted the score at 21. After one more tie at 22, the Mustangs took set one 25-22.

Cal Poly started set two on its toes, posting five-straight points, but the Wildcats battled back with five-straight of their own. Cal Poly started inching past Weber State until the score was tied again at 20, 21 and 22. The Mustangs came out on top with three-straight points after a timeout to give them their second set to lead in the match 2-0.

Every point was tied in the third set except for the 12th point until Weber State gradually pulled away led by Jenna Leggat with seven kills in the set, hitting .545.

Led by Weber State’s Caitlin Anderson, the Wildcats came out on top in set four, sending the match into five. Anderson tallied four kills in the fourth at .400 hitting. After having the score tied at 17, the Wildcats pulled away on a 9-1 run with Leggat serving seven of those points to win the set 25-18.

Set five was a battle until Cal Poly went on a 4-0 run ending at 11-8. Three of the last four kills came from Megan McConnell to win the match and set (15-11).

Volleyball Box Score
BYU Cougars
#23 Kansas State vs BYU Cougars
(Sep 05, 2009 at Provo, Utah)
   Kansas State      ATTACK  SET  SERVE  SRV  DEF  BLOCK  GEN    
##  Player  SP  K  E  TA  PCT  A  SA  SE  RE  DIG  BS  BA  BE  BHE  Points 
1   Donahue, Caitlyn   5  15  5  41  .244  0  2  3  1  21  0  1  1  0  17.5 
5   Ludwig, Kathleen   5  11  6  30  .167  0  3  2  0  10  0  4  1  0  16.0 
6   Fay, Abby   5  0  0  0  .000  0  1  0  0  9  0  0  0  0  1.0 
7   Pacheco, Soriana   5  1  0  7  .143  54  2  1  0  8  0  4  1  0  5.0 
14  Chipman, Kelsey   5  19  4  37  .405  1  0  1  0  7  0  6  2  0  22.0 
16  Allison, Sarah   5  4  1  10  .300  3  0  0  0  0  0  3  0  0  5.5 
2   Mathewson, Lauren   5  0  0  0  .000  2  0  3  3  22  0  0  0  0  0.0 
10  Horton, Audrey   1  0  0  0  .000  0  0  0  0  0  0  2  0  0  1.0 
11  Grot, Izabela   1  0  0  1  .000  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0.0 
12  Chisholm, JuliAnne   5  15  12  61  .049  1  0  0  1  5  0  2  0  0  16.0 
  Totals  5  65  28  187  .198  61  8  10  5  82  0  22  5  0  84.0 
  
  TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
TEAM ATTACK BY SET 
Set  K  E  TA  Pct 
1  12  6  34  .176 
2  16  6  48  .208 
3  18  5  38  .342 
4  11  7  40  .100 
5  8  4  27  .148 
    
SET SCORES  1  2  3  4  5     TEAM RECORDS 
Kansas State   (3)  25  22  25  17  15     4-2  
BYU Cougars   (2)  21  25  19  25  11     4-3  
   BYU Cougars      ATTACK  SET  SERVE  SRV  DEF  BLOCK  GEN    
##  Player  SP  K  E  TA  PCT  A  SA  SE  RE  DIG  BS  BA  BE  BHE  Points 
6   GOODSELL, Chelsea   5  0  1  2  -.500  2  2  0  0  13  0  0  0  0  2.0 
9   ROGERS, Kiana   5  2  0  7  .286  48  0  2  0  10  1  2  0  0  4.0 
11  LAKE WRIGHT, Melissa  5  0  0  1  .000  2  1  1  1  18  0  0  0  0  1.0 
12  WALKER, Kayla   5  14  8  64  .094  2  1  1  3  17  0  4  2  0  17.0 
14  CARPENTER, Christie   5  5  2  21  .143  0  1  1  0  4  0  4  0  0  8.0 
15  WARNER, Nicole   5  12  0  24  .500  1  0  0  0  1  0  7  2  0  15.5 
1   LLOYD SORENSEN, Morg  5  0  0  0  .000  1  0  1  4  24  0  0  0  0  0.0 
7   MEASOM, Christina   5  14  7  31  .226  0  0  0  0  1  0  2  0  0  15.0 
20  SPEREDON THURSTON,Ca  5  9  4  20  .250  0  0  0  0  1  0  3  0  0  10.5 
  Totals  5  56  22  170  .200  56  5  6  8  89  1  22  4  0  73.0 
  
  TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
TEAM ATTACK BY SET 
Set  K  E  TA  Pct 
1  11  7  34  .118 
2  14  2  43  .279 
3  10  4  32  .188 
4  16  5  34  .324 
5  5  4  27  .037 
    Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
Date: Sep 05, 2009 Attend: 571 Time: 2H 15M
Referees: Tom Given, Teri Jackson, Karen Marshall
   1  2  3  4  5  Total 
Tie scores  7  7  6  1  2  23 
Lead changes  4  2  3  1  1  11

PROVO -- After having four road games the BYU Cougars (2-2) will come home to the Smith Fieldhouse Friday and Saturday to host the BYU Nike Classic. Kansas State, Weber State and Cal Poly are the featured teams for the 30th year of the tournament.

“We’re very excited to be playing on our home court,” said BYU head coach Shay Goulding. “The last two games were losses partially because of the other team’s home-court advantage. We’ve collected ourselves after the last couple games and we’re ready to play. We’ll be looking for a couple players to step up and lead this team this weekend.”

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. It is one of college volleyball’s longest running traditions, and although the name of the marquee tournament has evolved over the years from the BYU Preview to the BYU Invitational to the BYU Mizuno Classic to the BYU Molten Classic, to the current BYU Nike Classic, the premise has always been the same – to gather top teams from around the country for intense competition.

The Nike Classic will get started on Friday at 5 p.m. with Kansas State and Weber State facing off. BYU will then open its home season at 7 p.m. against Cal Poly. Saturday’s early action will feature Cal Poly vs. Kansas State at 10 a.m. followed by BYU vs. Weber State at 12 p.m. The tournament will conclude Saturday evening with a 5 p.m. match pitting Weber State against Cal Poly and a 7 p.m. contest between BYU and Kansas State.

Live stats will be available for all six matches while the BYU vs. Weber State contest will be available via Internet video streaming for BYU All-Access subscribers. For links to these options, visit the BYU women’s volleyball schedule page by clicking HERE.

Because All-Sport passes have not yet been distributed, all students can get into the volleyball matches with a valid BYU student ID.