Cougars Earn 3-0 Season-Opening Victory

PROVO -- Opening the season in front of a huge home crowd Friday night in the Smith Fieldhouse, the BYU men's volleyball team put on a good show with its first match against Red Deer College, winning 3-0. A steady stream of spectators was still coming into the Fieldhouse all the way through the second game of the match, packing in over 3,500 fans to support the Cougars.

"We had a huge crowd," said BYU head coach Tom Peterson. "That's one of the really neat things that I didn't know was going to happen tonight."

The crowd was not disappointed. Led by junior middle blocker Chris Gorny and senior outside hitter Jaime Mayol with 11 kills each, the Cougars steadily improved in each game and pulled through to victory. Sophomore middle blocker Michael Burke made an impressive showing, hitting a .500 with nine kills and five blocks in his first collegiate appearance.

The Cougars started off strong in the first game with a 4-0 lead, but the Kings stepped up and gave them a good battle. Defensively, the Cougars struggled in blocking and digs; on offense they averaged a .286 hitting percentage with lots of errors as they tried to get a feel for the game. Gorny made the first big defensive play with a crucial solo block to tie the score at 28. The two teams traded points up to 31, then Jonathan Alleman and Burke threw out a huge block to take the Cougars up by one. Alleman served up an ace to seal the game at 33-31 for the Cougars.

"I didn't want to make it that exciting. We always want to win by bigger margins all the time because we are playing great," Peterson said. "There were periods of time that we were just up and down with errors, and I guess you almost expect it early in the season but you sure want to hurry and get away from it."

Mayol started in game two with some big plays, recording eight kills and a .500 hitting percentage. Recording four kills to help BYU to an 11-7 lead, he set the momentum and kept it up for the rest of the match. As a team, the Cougars hit a stellar .484, recording a total of 18 kills with only three errors on 31 attempts. Mayol dominated the Cougar attack, leading the team through eight consecutive plays with four kills and a service ace to give the Cougars a 28-18 lead.

"Jaime is our highest jumper, and that transfers into power," Peterson said. "I'm very proud of him. He is just great about his attitude, and he has really helped the team."

Gorny came through in game two with a strong kill at the end, and a Red Deer service error gave the Cougars game two, 30-21.

In game three the defense stepped up and the team seemed to have more confidence on the court. Gorny and senior Rafael Paal combined for nine of the team's 18 kills in game three and sophomore Carlos Moreno combined with Burke on some crucial blocks. The Kings also stepped up their game, led by Nicholas Cundy's strong attack with eight kills, to give the crowd another close game. The teams played neck and neck until the very end when the Cougars made some key plays to pull ahead 29-26. Moreno sealed the victory with a decisive kill, giving the Cougars their first win of the 2003 season.

"There were errors in all categories, but we didn't have glaring errors overall in our game," Peterson said. "We can't let down at all with the excitement. For us to go beat Stanford next week and to beat these guys again tomorrow, we'll have to eliminate some errors on our part."

Volleyball Box Score
                        2003 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
        Red Deer College vs Brigham Young (Jan 10, 2003 at Provo, Utah)
    Red Deer College       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  CUNDY, Nicholas.....  3| 15   5  34  .294|  1|  0   2|  1|  3| 0  2  0|  0
 2  SILLERY, Adam.......  3|  3   2  11  .091|  1|  1   0|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0
 3  ELLIS, Robert.......  2|  1   2   6 -.167|  1|  0   2|  3|  1| 1  0  0|  0
 7  DAVIDIUK, Brock.....  3|  2   1   6  .167| 33|  1   2|  0|  8| 0  1  1|  1
 14 KUCHARSKI, Mac......  3|  8   1  11  .636|  1|  1   2|  0|  1| 0  3  1|  0
 15 SOONIAS, Daniel.....  3| 11   7  28  .143|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0
 4  SCHULHA, Aaron......  3|  3   3  13  .000|  2|  0   0|  1| 11| 1  0  0|  0
 8  TURNER, Jordan......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 9  SCHALK, Seth........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 11 ROTH, Adam..........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 43  21 109  .202| 40|  3  10|  5| 29| 2 12  2|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  8  38  .184   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  13  5  31  .258   Red Deer College.... 31 22 26  10-1
   3  15  8  40  .175   Brigham Young....... 33 30 30  1-0
    Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  BURKE, Michael......  3|  9   1  16  .500|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  5  2|  0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  3|  4   1   6  .500| 46|  1   3|  1|  7| 0  4  0|  1
 6  GORNY, Chris........  3| 11   1  18  .556|  0|  0   5|  0|  2| 1  1  0|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  3| 10   3  23  .304|  3|  1   3|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  1
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  3|  8   3  18  .278|  3|  2   1|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  1|  3   4   9 -.111|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 4  HILLMAN, Joe........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  3| 11   3  20  .400|  0|  1   0|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1| 11| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 56  16 110  .364| 54|  5  15|  3| 40| 1 12  2|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  8  42  .286   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  18  3  31  .484   Date: Jan 10, 2003   Attend: 3512   Time: 1:50
   3  18  5  37  .351   Referees: Tom Given, Les Calles, Erin Yamashita