Cougars Blank Bruins

PROVO -- With 4,980 fans packed into the George Albert Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, the BYU Cougars swept the UCLA Bruins 3-0 in their first conference match at home this season, winning 30-27, 30-21, 30-26. Tonight's win gives the third-ranked Cougars a 4-1 record on the season, while the Bruins drop to 1-3 (4-4 overall).

This 3-0 sweep marks the first time the Cougars have played less than five games in a match this season, and the first time BYU has beat UCLA in three since the Cougars beat the Bruins 3-0 in the 2001 NCAA Championship match. The last time BYU head coach Tom Peterson played UCLA as a head coach was in the 1994 NCAA Championship match when Penn State beat the Bruins 3-2 to become the only non-MPSF team to win the national championship.

"UCLA is the only team that has a better record than BYU in the last six years. If we get cocky at all we could be in trouble. That team will beat just about anybody," Peterson said. "That's what I'm worried about for tomorrow night."

As Peterson predicted earlier in the week, the team that made the least errors won the match. Although both teams recorded 14 service errors, the Bruins had 24 attack errors compared to BYU's 11. On the match, the Cougars out-blocked the Bruins 10-5.

Sophomore setter Carlos Moreno led a strong Cougar offense, recording 41 assists and a match-high .778 hitting percentage with seven kills on nine errorless attempts. Moreno also added four digs and three blocks to help out the defense.

Two other Cougars hit high .600 percentages on the night, including junior outside hitter Jonathan Alleman (.632) with 13 kills on 19 attempts and sophomore middle blocker Michael Burke (.600) with six kills on ten attempts. Alleman, who has dominated the Cougar attack this season, got less swings than in previous matches because Moreno was able to spread the passes around on the court.

"I would assume the crowd had fun watching our offense tonight. We were all over the place and it was hard for the Bruins to key in on any one individual," Peterson said. "Moreno ran a nice offense. He absolutely was a great setter tonight."

Junior Shawn Olmstead started at libero for the second time this season and recorded a team-high six digs with three assists. Olmstead started for the first time last week against Pacific, taking over for three-year starter Fernando Pessoa.

"I thought Shawn had a nice game tonight, and I'm confident that if Nando were in he could have won that match for us also," Peterson said. "Nando is the best passer on our team and Shawn digs just a little bit better than Nando does, so you get a little bit out of each one. The two are really even."

In game one the Cougars made the first two points on a kill by Alleman followed by a Rafael Paal service ace. The Cougars held the lead throughout the game, but the Bruins battled it out for every point. With the score close at 25-24, Moreno pulled off a strong single block that started the Cougars on a three-point run with Luka Slabe serving. Paul Johnson had two kills interrupted by a UCLA service error and Rich Nelson killed the ball to cut BYU's lead to two at 29-27. As the crowd roared in support, Moreno passed to Paal for a huge slam-down kill to win the game.

Game two took on the same neck-and-neck pace, but the Bruins were plagued with errors. With the score at 9-5 for the Cougars, the Bruins had hit a -.222 as a team. BYU kept up the lead and hit .353 as a team with key plays from Moreno and Paal, winning the game 30-21 on a final UCLA attack error. The Bruins finished the game hitting -.032.

UCLA earned the first point in game three on a Paal service error, and the two teams struggled for the lead up to a 20-20 tie. An Alleman kill gave the Cougars some momentum to build up a 28-23 lead. The Bruins fought their way back to a closer three-point deficit at 29-26, but Alleman sealed the Cougar victory with a forceful cross-court kill.

"UCLA is a very young team, and they made many mistakes tonight," Peterson said. "That is not characteristic of a mature team. We played well, but there was an age difference."

Junior Chris Pena led the Bruins with a .553 hitting percentage (10-2-15), and Jonathan Acosta and J.T. Winger added 7 and 11 kills, respectively.

Peterson expects a tighter match tomorrow night, when the two teams face off again at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.

Volleyball Box Score
                        2003 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
           No. 7 UCLA vs Brigham Young (Jan 31, 2003 at Provo, Utah)
    No. 7 UCLA             |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  DEBBAN, Jesse.......  3|  6   3  12  .250|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 4  WENGER, J.T.........  3| 11   4  24  .292|  0|  0   4|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  0
 5  JOHNSON, Paul.......  2|  6   5  14  .071|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  1|  0
 7  ACOSTA, Jonathan....  3|  7   6  20  .050|  1|  0   1|  0|  5| 0  1  0|  0
 15 NELSON, Rich........  3|  2   0   5  .400| 43|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  2  0|  1
 33 PENA, Chris.........  3| 10   2  15  .533|  0|  0   4|  1|  0| 0  3  0|  0
 6  GARRETT, GRAY.......  3|  1   1   3  .000|  1|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 17 ALLAN, Vince........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 24 SHRADER, Adam.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  8| 0  0  0|  0
 26 KRAUSHAAR, Kris.....  1|  2   1   4  .250|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 1  0  0|  0
 27 SCHEFTIC, Nick......  2|  3   2   7  .143|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 48  24 104  .231| 46|  0  14|  1| 25| 1  8  1|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  4  38  .421   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2   9 10  31 -.032   No. 7 UCLA.......... 27 21 26  4-4, 1-3
   3  19 10  35  .257   Brigham Young....... 30 30 30  4-1, 4-1
    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|  6   0  10  .600|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  1|  0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  3|  7   0   9  .778| 41|  0   2|  0|  4| 1  2  0|  0
 6  GORNY, Chris........  3|  7   4  14  .214|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  4  0|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  3|  9   3  23  .261|  4|  1   5|  0|  4| 0  3  0|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  3| 13   1  19  .632|  1|  0   4|  0|  5| 2  1  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  3|  8   3  17  .294|  0|  0   2|  0|  6| 1  1  2|  0
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 50  11  92  .424| 49|  1  14|  0| 26| 4 12  3|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  2  33  .515   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  18  6  34  .353   Date: Jan 31, 2003   Attend: 4980   Time: 1:40
   3  13  3  25  .400   Referees: Les Calles, Maile Jewkes, Erin Yamashita