LINCOLN -- In the last match of the Ameritas Players Challenge, the BYU women’s volleyball team (4-6) lost to Virginia (5-4) in four sets (15-25, 27-29, 25-18, 17-25).

“We lost our focus and made way too many errors,” said BYU head coach Shay Goulding. “We’re going to take this weekend and learn from it. I have confidence that we will still do well in conference play.”

Kayla Walker led the Cougars with kills, posting 17 on the night while Christina Measom had 12. Morgan Lloyd Sorensen held up the defense with 21 digs. Kiana Rogers added 41 assists and 11 digs while Chelsea Goodsell and Melissa Lake Wright had 18 and 11 digs, respectively.

While the Cougars had some bright spots in the match, 12 service errors cost them the game.

Virginia went on a 5-1 run to start the first set, causing the Cougars to play catch-up the rest of the set. But the Cavaliers posted a 10-0 run ending at 21-11 with eight kills and two BYU attack errors. The set ended at 25-15.

BYU came out with all guns blazing in the second set, posting a 7-2 run by a balanced attack from Rogers, Measom, Walker and Warner. Camilla Phillips came in at 14-9 and posted the next kill, along with a service ace from Measom, the Cougars tallied their biggest lead of the set at 16-9. Virginia then tallied a 7-0 run to knot the score at 19. With back-and-forth play the score was tied at 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 until the Cavaliers ended the set with a 3-0 run (29-27).

The Cougars shared the load of scoring to begin set three with a 7-3 start. The Cougars maintained an average five-point lead throughout the rest of the set, winning their first at 25-18.

Virginia maintained the lead in all of set four, the last tie of the match coming at four. The Cavaliers ran up the score too quick for the Cougars to come back, losing the set and match at 25-17. The Cougars ended with a 4-2 run, but it was too late.

The Cougars will come back home to start conference play Thursday against SDSU at 7 p.m. and Saturday against Air Force at 1 p.m. Both matches will be held in the Smith Fieldhouse. Thursday’s game will be broadcast live via BYUTV and Saturday’s game will be radio broadcast live on BYU Radio.

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
                 BYU vs Virginia (Sep 12, 2009 at Lincoln, NE)
   BYU                    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7  MEASOM, Christina...  4| 12   4  27  .296|  0|  1   3|  0|  1| 0  4  0|  0|  15.0
9  ROGERS, Kiana.......  4|  1   1   7  .000| 41|  1   2|  0| 11| 0  2  0|  0|   3.0
11 LAKE WRIGHT, Melissa  4|  0   0   2  .000|  2|  3   0|  2| 11| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
12 WALKER, Kayla.......  4| 17   7  48  .208|  0|  0   1|  0|  9| 0  0  1|  0|  17.0
14 CARPENTER, Christie.  4|  6   7  22 -.045|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0|   7.0
15 WARNER, Nicole......  4|  7   2  20  .250|  1|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  3  1|  0|   8.5
1  LLOYD SORENSEN, Morg  4|  0   1   3 -.333|  2|  0   1|  1| 21| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
2  HANNEMANN, Heather..  1|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
6  GOODSELL, Chelsea...  4|  0   0   2  .000|  0|  0   2|  1| 18| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
10 PHILLIPS, Camilla...  2|  1   2   7 -.143|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
17 HONKA, Courtney.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
20 SPEREDON THURSTON,Ca  4|  7   6  27  .037|  0|  0   0|  1|  2| 0  3  0|  0|   8.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 51  30 165  .127| 49|  5  12|  5| 75| 0 14  2|  0|  63.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct
   1   9  5  45  .089   SET SCORES                1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  17 14  56  .054   BYU................. (1) 15 27 25 17  4-6
   3  17  3  35  .400   Virginia............ (3) 25 29 18 25  5-4
   4   8  8  29  .000
   Virginia               |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2  Rachel Gray.........  4|  4   0  12  .333| 35|  0   1|  0|  9| 0  6  0|  0|   7.0
4  Lauren Dickson......  4| 16   4  44  .273|  2|  0   1|  1| 13| 3  0  2|  0|  19.0
8  Sydney Hill.........  4|  7   2  23  .217|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  4  0|  0|   9.0
11 Simone Asque........  4| 12   9  39  .077|  1|  1   0|  1| 13| 0  3  0|  1|  14.5
16 Hillary Trebels.....  3|  1   1   5  .000|  1|  1   1|  0|  2| 1  2  0|  0|   4.0
17 Tobi Farrar.........  4|  5   2  16  .188|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0|   6.5
3  Kendahl Voelker.....  1|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
7  AJ Cushman..........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  6|  2   1|  1| 26| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
12 Brittani Rendina....  4|  0   0   1  .000|  1|  1   0|  2|  8| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
22 Jessica O'Shoney....  3|  3   2   7  .143|  0|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  5  0|  0|   5.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  4| 48  21 149  .181| 46|  5   5|  5| 77| 4 23  2|  1|  68.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.5
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  3  44  .341   Site: Lincoln, NE (NU Coliseum)
   2   9  8  46  .022   Date: Sep 12, 2009   Attend: 244   Time: 1:55
   3  10  5  36  .139   Referees: Gary Houghton, Joan Powell
   4  11  5  23  .261   Illegal sub for UVA resulting in a loss of point
                        awarded point to BYU.
                                         1   2   3   4 Total
                        Tie scores       2   8   3   2    15
                        Lead changes     0   3   2   0     5

PROVO -- Coming off a second-place finish at the BYU Nike Classic, the BYU women’s volleyball team (4-3) travels to Nebraska Thursday-Saturday for the Ameritas Players Challenge hosted by the Huskers. The Cougars will take on No. 8 UCLA (5-1), No. 5 Nebraska (5-1) and Virginia (4-2).

The Cougars will play UCLA at 4:30 p.m. CT on Thursday, Nebraska at 7 p.m. CT on Friday and Virginia at 4 p.m. CT.

“Not many get to play in front of a crowd like what they have in Nebraska and we are looking forward to a great experience,” said BYU head coach Shay Goulding. “It is going to be an awesome opportunity to end our preseason tournament play with Nebraska, UCLA and Virginia. It is going to prepare us well to open conference in the next couple of weeks.”

BYU downed Weber State in three in the second match of the Nike Classic, but brought Cal Poly and Kansas State to five sets, dropping one to Kansas State – the winner of the tournament. Despite a second-place finish in the Nike Classic, two Cougars, Kayla Walker and Christie Carpenter, were named to the all-tournament team.

Senior rightside hitter Walker led her team, posting her first double-double of the season with 14 kills and 17 digs against the No. 23-ranked Kansas State Wildcats at the Nike Classic. The Cougars went 2-1 in the tournament placing second as a result of Walker’s solid play each game as she was named to the All-Tournament team. Against Weber State, she led the offense with nine kills, downing the Wildcats in three. Against Cal Poly Walker had 22 kills and hit at .314. Earlier in the week against instate-rival Utah State, Walker posted a career-high 25 kills, hitting at .288 and also tallying nine digs and two blocks.

Sophomore outside hitter Carpenter posted seven kills five digs and six blocks against Cal Poly in the first match of the tournament and improved each game. Against Weber State she had five kills, three service aces, five digs, one solo block and three blocking assists. In the tough battle against No. 23 Kansas State, Carpenter tallied five kills, one service ace, four digs and four blocks.

Saturday against Kansas State was a night of records for the Cougars as Walker recorded a double-double with 14 kills and 17 digs. Nicole 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 24 digs.

The Cougars will look to keep improving set by set this weekend playing against two more ranked teams before the regular conference season starts Sept. 17 when they will host San Diego State at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.