Cougars Beat Cardinal in Five

PROVO -- Junior outside hitter Jonathan Alleman recorded a personal-best 30 kills in BYU's first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match of the season, leading the Cougars to a close 3-2 win over Stanford at Burnham Pavilion. The win over Stanford gives BYU a 2003 starting record of 1-0, while the Cardinal falls 2-3 on the season.

"It was a tight match and Stanford is a tall team," Peterson said. "It helped to have good fan support, though. I think half the crowd was Cougar fans."

The Cougars, ranked No. 5 in the AVCA polls, hit over .450 as a team in three of the five games, finishing 33-31, 23-30, 30-26, 29-31, 15-11. Besides recording a match-high 30 kills, Alleman was fairly consistent with a .458 percentage (30-8-48).

"They were using a system where they trapped a bunch and left the D set open," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "Alleman got good at that and caught on fire. He was hitting all over the net and they couldn't stop him."

Senior Rafael Paal recorded a double-double with 15 digs and 20 kills, hitting a .485 (20-4-33) on the night. Paal also hit 4 service aces against the Cardinal, tying a BYU single-match record.

Junior middle blocker Chris Gorny led the Cougars in hitting percentage, hitting a .545 with 7 kills on 11 attempts and only one error. Sophomore Michael Burke also recorded an impressive .533 percentage, hitting 10 kills on 15 attempts and only 2 errors.

The Cougars recorded a total of 10 service aces on the night, but also had 24 service errors and were outblocked by the Cardinal eight to six. Curt Toppel led the Cardinal with 22 kills and 2 service aces on the night.

"I think we were up and down," Peterson said. "We still saw too many service errors and need to improve on that, but it was great that we happened to be up at the end."

BYU and Stanford face each other again tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Stanford's Burnham Pavilion.

Volleyball Box Score
                        2003 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
     Brigham Young vs Stanford Cardinal (Jan 17, 2003 at Stanford, Calif.)
    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......  5| 10   2  15  .533|  0|  1   2|  0|  0| 0  4  1|  0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  5|  4   2   8  .250| 72|  3   3|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  3
 6  GORNY, Chris........  5|  7   1  11  .545|  0|  1   5|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  4|  1   1   8  .000|  0|  0   2|  1|  3| 0  1  1|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  5| 20   4  33  .485|  3|  4   6|  1| 15| 0  1  2|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  5| 30   8  48  .458|  1|  0   2|  0|  7| 0  2  0|  1
 15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  2| 10| 0  0  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  4|  8   3  16  .312|  0|  1   4|  4|  1| 1  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 80  21 139  .424| 77| 10  24|  8| 40| 1 10  4|  4
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  24  4  39  .513   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  10  6  25  .160   Brigham Young....... 33 23 30 29 15  1-0, 1-0
   3  22  4  34  .529   Stanford Cardinal... 31 30 26 31 11  2-3, 0-1
   4  13  5  21  .381
   5  11  2  20  .450
    Stanford Cardinal      |     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   3  20  .300|  2|  2   4|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0
 2  AHLFELDT, Chris.....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 4  CURTIS, William.....  5| 12   4  21  .381|  0|  2   5|  0|  4| 0  0  2|  0
 5  VOGEL, David........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  4|  7| 0  0  0|  0
 6  REDDY, Ben..........  2|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 7  SANDMAN, Christopher  4|  8   4  17  .235|  0|  1   1|  0|  1| 1  3  0|  0
 10 STRICKLAND, William.  5| 12   3  25  .360|  0|  0   1|  2|  7| 0  3  0|  0
 12 BUELL, Craig........  2|  4   1   8  .375|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0
 15 TOPPEL, Curt........  5| 22   7  45  .333|  1|  2   5|  4|  4| 0  2  1|  0
 17 HANSEN, Kevin.......  5|  3   0   5  .600| 58|  1   0|  0|  8| 1  1  2|  1
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 70  23 142  .331| 63|  8  16| 10| 33| 2 12  6|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  4  36  .361   Site: Stanford, Calif. (Burnham Pavilion)
   2  17  6  32  .344   Date: Jan 17, 2003   Attend: 389   Time: 2:11
   3  14  4  26  .385   Referees: Gary Wakai, Bill Forrester
   4  17  6  34  .324
   5   5  3  14  .143