McGown Wins Final Home Match

PROVO -- On a night that was to be head coach Carl McGown's last match in the Smith Fieldhouse, No. 6 Stanford gave him and the fourth-ranked Cougars a match they will not soon forget. After losing the first two games of the match, the Cardinal battled back to win games three and four and hung around all the way through game five. In the end, the Cougars outlasted Stanford, 21-19, in game five to claim the match, 3-2. Having won 12 of its last 13 matches, BYU will travel to Malibu, Calif., to take on top-ranked Pepperdine in the semi-finals of the MPSF Tournament.

"Before the match I was thinking how this was going to be my final match in the Smith Fieldhouse," McGown said. "I'm pretty nostalgic about things like that. I was going to be alright with however it ended up. But, it's going to be nice to be able to write down a win for my last match in the Fieldhouse. Mostly, I had just been thinking that this was going to be my last match. I'm pleased it turned out this way."

BYU All-American Mike Wall his first double-double of the season with a season-high 33 kills on 50 swings, hitting an impressive .480 at the net. Four other Cougars registered double-digit kills, including Rafael Paal, who turned in a season-high 17 kills. Joaquin Acosta tallied 13 kills, while Luka Slabe had 12 and middle blocker Chris Gorny added 11.

While being out-blocked 11.0-5.0, the Cougars managed to apply defensive pressure with 50 digs to Stanfords 29. Wall led the way with a season-high 15 digs, followed by Slabe, Paal and Carlos Moreno who had seven each.

The Cougars got off to a blistering start in game on, hitting .455 in the 30-24 victory. BYU spread the wealth with five different players picking up four kills each. All totaled, seven different players divided 33 attempts with just six errors. Game two was more of the same, with BYU hitting 19-of-26 for a .577 average. Wall paced the Cougars with a game-high eight kills in the 30-23 win.

"After playing flawlessly in the first two games, we had guys walking back on the court laughing and maybe thinking we were going to go home after three games," McGown said. "Stanford is one of the top teams in the country. Against a team that is that good, you just can't be doing things like that. We lost focus and showed some immaturity. As a result, we started playing worse, and they started playing better. Stanford is a very good volleyball team. They certainly put us in a situation where our backs were against the wall."

After falling 0-2 in the match, the Cardinal reeled off back-to-back wins to force a fifth and deciding game. In game five, the two teams battled through 14 ties while Stanford fought off five match-point serves. BYU gained the advantage at 20-19 when Acosta dialed up the match-winning kill.

Stanford's Curt Toppel recorded a team-high 25 kills, while Billy Strickland was credited with 13. Marcus Skacel had a team-best eight digs, while Paul Bocage and Chris Sandman had five blocks each for the Cardinal.

BYU will travel to Malibu, Calif. on Thursday, April 25 to take on top-ranked Pepperdine in the semi-final round of the MPSF Tournament. Match time is slated for 5 p.m. (PDT) at the Firestone Fieldhouse. The Waves advanced after sweeping CS Northridge on Saturday, 3-0. UC Santa Barbara upset UCLA in five games on Saturday and will meet the winner of the Hawaii-Long Beach State match on Thursday in Malibu following the BYU-Pepperdine match.

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
           #6 Stanford vs Brigham Young (Apr 20, 2002 at Provo, Utah)
    #6 Stanford            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  BOCAGE, Paul........  5|  9   0  18  .500|  0|  1   1|  0|  0| 2  3  1|  0
 8  STRACHE, Kyle.......  2|  4   1   8  .375|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 10 STRICKLAND, Billy...  5| 13   4  26  .346|  1|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  2  0|  0
 15 TOPPEL, Curt........  5| 25   5  43  .465|  0|  1   8|  0|  7| 0  2  1|  0
 17 HANSEN, Kevin.......  5|  4   3  13  .077| 71|  0   3|  0|  1| 1  0  1|  0
 21 SKACEL, Marcus......  5| 11   6  33  .152|  2|  0   5|  1|  8| 0  3  1|  0
 3  SANDMAN, Chris......  4| 10   0  14  .714|  0|  0   0|  1|  2| 1  4  0|  0
 4  CURTIS, William.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 5  VOGEL, David........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 9  RING, Seth..........  5|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  6| 0  0  0|  0
 11 JOHNSTONE, Doug.....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 76  19 156  .365| 75|  2  18|  4| 29| 4 14  4|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  3  30  .333   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14  5  33  .273   #6 Stanford......... 24 23 30 31 19  16-10
   3  18  1  26  .654   Brigham Young....... 30 30 24 29 21  24-6
   4  18  8  40  .250
   5  13  2  27  .407
    Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  WALL, Mike..........  5| 33   9  50  .480|  1|  0   0|  1| 15| 0  1  0|  0
 4  ACOSTA, Joaquin.....  5| 13   7  25  .240|  0|  2   3|  0|  6| 0  0  1|  0
 6  GORNY, Chris........  5| 11   4  17  .412|  0|  0   3|  0|  2| 0  2  2|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  5| 17   2  25  .600|  2|  0   4|  0|  7| 0  3  0|  0
 11 MORENO, Carlos......  5|  3   1   6  .333| 84|  1   3|  0|  7| 0  3  3|  2
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  5| 12   5  25  .280|  2|  1   3|  0|  7| 0  1  2|  0
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  4|  1   2   6 -.167|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  1|  1   0   2  .500|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1|  6| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 91  30 156  .391| 91|  4  17|  2| 50| 0 10  8|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  21  6  33  .455   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  19  4  26  .577   Date: Apr 20, 2002   Attend: 1757   Time: 2:05
   3  17  5  27  .444   Referees: Kim Pickering, Tom Given
   4  20 11  41  .220   2002 MPSF Tournament - First Round
   5  14  4  29  .345   BYU Advances to Semi-Final Round vs. Pepperdine; April 25, 2002.