Cougars Hold Off UC Irvine, 3-0

PROVO -- The second-ranked BYU men's volleyball team improved to 10-0 on the season with a hard-fought 3-0 win over UC Irvine (3-9, 1-6) on Saturday, 31-29, 31-29, 30-17. With the win, the Cougars (10-0, 6-0) recorded their eighth three-game victory of the season and maintained their lead in the MPSF Mountain Division.

"I think UC Irvine is a very good team," BYU head coach Carl McGown said. "They have had to do some reconstructing after losing one of their best players and have put together a nice team. We were fortunate -- really, really lucky to come back and win games one and two. I think we used up a lot of gas from our tank after last night's match (against UCLA) and did a nice job of hanging in there and winning the match."

BYU was spurred by sophomore Jaime Mayol, who led the Cougars with a match-high 12 kills on 18 swings (.500). All-American Scott Bunker hit a blistering .714 on the night, connecting on 10-of-14 swings. Bunker leads the nation in hitting, posting a .549 mark on the season. The 6-5 senior also posted a match-high seven blocks on the night and was credited with three digs. Freshman Jonathan Alleman came of the bench to post solid numbers for the second straight night, hitting .800 (4-of-5) at the net and chalked up four key blocks. Senior Mac Wilson also saw significant time off the bench, recording five kills on nine attempts and produced three key blocks.

"Like last night, we had some guys come off the bench and contribute in a nice way," McGown said. "I told the team earlier today we have 12 guys that make up this team. We don't just have six guys who carry us, we have 12 guys who are all apart of this team . Every guy has to be able to contribute."

In game one, the Cougars trailed by as many as five points late in the game. Fueled by Monte Tucker and Jimmy Peizel who combined for 12 of the Anteaters' 19 kills in game one, UCI held a 22-17 lead before the Cougars started to chip away. Matt Olsen and Mayol teamed on a block at the net to tie things up at 25-25, but the Anteaters pulled away to another two-point lead, 28-26. Joaquin Acosta posted back-to-back kills to tie the score again at 28 all, but Tucker picked up a key kill, allowing the Anteaters to serve for game point. Junior Mike wall, who recorded 22 kills against UCLA on Friday, flu and all, picked up his fifth kill of the game to tie the contest at 29-29. Erick Helenihi's attack sailed long giving BYU the 30-29 lead before Bunker and All-American setter Hector Lebron teamed on a block to end the game, 31-29.

Game two was much more of the same. UCI led by as many as four (16-12), but the Cougars continued to battle it out, trading serves until a UCI hitting error tied things up at 25-25. A bad BYU pass gave the Anteaters a 28-26 lead, but Cougar kills and a dual block from Wilson and Acosta tied the game at 28-28. Luka Slabe served into the net to give UCI a one-point lead before a passing error tied things back up at 29-29. Acosta recorded his third kill of the match to force game point when former BYU setter Todd Steinert sailed into the net, giving BYU its second straight 31-29 win.

With momentum on BYU's side and a crowd of 4,168 fans packed into the Smith Fieldhouse, the Cougars built a 13-point lead in game three. Fueled by a .545 hitting performance and holding the Anteaters to just .056 at the net, BYU posted a 29-16 lead on a Lebron/Bunker block. UCI recorded its 17th point on a bad BYU pass, but for the second night in a row, sophomore Luka Slabe ended the match, recording his only kill of th night.

The Cougars will prepare for a three-game road swing, traveling to USC, UC Santa Barbara and Pepperdine next week. BYU will take on the Trojans in Los Angeles for the second time this season on Wednesday, before playing at UC Santa Barbara on Friday and Pepperdine on Saturday.

"This will be a very tough week for us," McGown said. "In my opinion, we will be playing two of the top teams in the country and we'll have to play three matches in four nights. We certainly have our work cut out for us. Earlier this week I said we have five really tough matches ahead of us, including the two we've played this weekend. I figured if we went 4-1, we'd be very happy. So far we're 2-0 and we'll just have to see how things turn out."

-- BYU --

#12 UC Irvine vs Brigham Young (Feb 24, 2001 at Provo, Utah)
    #12 UC Irvine          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  TUCKER, Monte.......  3| 11   5  21  .286|  5|  0   3|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 9  STEINERT, Todd......  3|  1   2   6 -.167| 33|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0
 12 HELENIHI, Erick.....  3|  9   1  20  .400|  0|  0   3|  0|  3| 1  2  0|  0
 15 JENSEN, Jarett......  3|  7   4  17  .176|  1|  0   3|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0
 16 WEICHERT, Kyle......  3|  6   4  14  .143|  1|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0
 23 PEIZEL, Jimmy.......  3| 11   8  22  .136|  0|  0   2|  1| 10| 1  1  0|  0
 1  BEMUS, Spencer......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 2  SHEA, Devin.........  2|  1   0   1 1.000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 4  NIEMONTH, Chuck.....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 8  WATUMULL, Brenden...  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 46  24 101  .218| 41|  0  12|  3| 24| 2 10  0|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  4  34  .441   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14  9  31  .161   #12 UC Irvine....... 29 29 17  3-9, 1-6
   3  13 11  36  .056   Brigham Young....... 31 31 30  10-0, 6-0
    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..........  2|  7   5  17  .118|  1|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  0  2|  0
 3  ACOSTA, Joaquin.....  3|  6   4  18  .111|  2|  1   3|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0
 4  OLSEN, Matt.........  2|  2   1   5  .200|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  1
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  3| 12   3  18  .500|  1|  1   0|  0|  5| 0  3  3|  0
 9  LEBRON, Hector......  3|  6   0   9  .667| 39|  0   0|  0|  4| 0  3  1|  0
 13 BUNKER, Scott.......  3| 10   0  14  .714|  1|  1   2|  0|  3| 0  7  2|  0
 5  WILSON, Mac.........  2|  5   1   9  .444|  0|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  2|  4   0   5  .800|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  4  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  2|  1   1   3  .000|  1|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 53  15  98  .388| 46|  3  13|  0| 25| 0 24  8|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  5  36  .417   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  19  8  40  .275   Date: Feb 24, 2001   Attend: 4168   Time: 1:25
   3  14  2  22  .545   Referees: Tom Given, Les Calles