Balanced Attack Gives BYU Seventh Straight Win

PROVO -- With four different players recording double digits in kills, the fifth-ranked BYU men's volleyball team registered its seventh straight victory, defeating Ohio State 30-25, 30-25, 28-30, 30-26. With the win, the Cougars improve to 7-1 on the season, while Ohio State falls to 4-3.

For the first time this season, four different Cougars registered 10 or more kills, led by Joaquin Acosta who posted a match-high 19 kills. All-American Mike Wall racked 17 kills, while Rafael Paal and Jaime Mayol finished the night with 11 and 10, respectively. Wall and Acosta have each posted double-digit kills in all eight matches this season. Mayol finished the weekend hitting a blistering .618 at the net, totaling 23 kills on 34 attempts with just two errors over the two matches.

Defensively, sophomore Chris Gorny led the match with a season-high eight blocks, followed by Paal who added five blocks and a team-leading eight digs. On the night, the Cougars out-blocked the Buckeyes 14.5 to 8.5 and forced 24 hitting errors on 131 swings. Mayol was also instrumental on defense, recording four blocks and seven digs against the Buckeyes.

"I like it when I see our defense holding their main guy, Pieter Olree, who gets 46 swings, to just .217 on the night. We held him to .333 last night, but did a better job on him tonight. Here's a guy who won a gold medal at the World University Games last summer and will probably be back training with the U.S. Team in Colorado Springs. He's their main guy and when we hold him to just .217, that tells me our guys are doing something right."

Just when it looked as if the Cougars would cruise to their fourth straight three-game victory, the Buckeyes had different ideas. Ohio State put Mike Wauligman in at opposite, who promptly registered four kills on four attempts. OSU out-hit the Cougars .455 to .324 in the game, ending BYU's impressive 12-game win streak.

"We were Jekyl and Hyde tonight," BYU head coach Carl McGown said. "I thought we played really well through much of the night, but kind of fell asleep at times. Ohio State made some nice changes in game three with Wauligman in the match. They took advantage of some things and we just didn't adjust. I don't know if we fell asleep or what."

The Cougars will take to the road next week for the first time this season, playing at Long Beach State on Feb. 6-8. Both matches are slated to begin at 7:30 p.m. (PST). BYU will complete its first of two straight road trips, spanning the entire month of February, with a single match at UC Irvine on Feb. 9. First serve is scheduled for 3 p.m. (PST).

Ohio State vs Brigham Young (Feb. 2, 2002 at Provo, Utah)
    #12 Ohio State         |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  GARCIA, Ricardo.....  2|  6   6  16  .000|  1|  1   3|  0|  2| 0  0  1|  0
 5  TRANTOW, Tom........  4| 15   6  32  .281|  1|  1   2|  2|  9| 0  5  0|  0
 6  PECKHAM, Mark.......  4|  1   0   2  .500| 53|  0   2|  0|  8| 0  1  1|  0
 7  HAMILTON, Brett.....  4| 10   1  15  .600|  0|  1   3|  0|  1| 0  6  2|  0
 10 PEDERSEN, Adam......  4|  5   0  11  .455|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  2  3|  0
 12 OLREE, Pieter.......  4| 18   8  46  .217|  0|  1   3|  1|  5| 0  2  0|  0
 1  SCHULTZ, Jon........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 9  DILLON, Aaron.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 13 WAULIGMAN, Mike.....  4|  5   3   9  .222|  2|  0   3|  2|  6| 0  1  0|  1
 16 LEHMAN, Mark........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 60  24 131  .275| 57|  5  18|  7| 37| 0 17  7|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  7  30  .133   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15  6  29  .310   #12 Ohio State...... 25 25 30 26  4 -3;
   3  18  3  33  .455   Brigham Young....... 30 30 28 30  7 -1; 5 -1;MPFS
   4  16  8  39  .205
    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..........  4| 17   6  32  .344|  0|  2   1|  0|  6| 0  4  0|  0
 4  ACOSTA, Joaquin.....  4| 19   3  39  .410|  0|  1   1|  1|  7| 0  4  0|  0
 6  GORNY, Chris........  4|  5   3  17  .118|  0|  0   5|  0|  2| 1  7  2|  0
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  3| 10   1  15  .600|  0|  0   1|  2|  7| 0  4  2|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  4| 11   2  20  .450|  0|  3   3|  1|  8| 0  5  3|  0
 11 MORENO, Carlos......  4|  1   2   4 -.250| 63|  0   4|  0|  4| 0  3  1|  2
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  3|  2   1   3  .333|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  1|  4   1   8  .375|  0|  1   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 69  19 138  .362| 64|  7  19|  5| 38| 1 27  8|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  3  33  .485   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  17  6  35  .314   Date: Feb. 2, 2002   Attend: 2387   Time: 2:00
   3  16  5  34  .324   Referees: Tom Given, Les Calles
   4  17  5  36  .333