Cougars Take Trojans in Three

LOS ANGELES -- The BYU offense proved to be too much for the USC Trojans Friday night as the Cougars hit .472 as a team in a 33-31, 30-27, 30-24 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation win in Los Angeles. With the win, the third-ranked Cougars improve to 10-3 on the season, while the Trojans fall 3-13 (1-10 MPSF) on the year.

"We out-blocked them 10.0 to 3.0 and out-hit them quite a ways," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "But we could have done even better. We have to be more disciplined and figure out the serve and serve-receive on those opponent courts."

The Cougars' .472 team hitting percentage on the night is the highest all season, despite their 18 service errors, and was far above USC's .215 team average. In game two the Cougars out-hit the Trojans .633 to .233, although BYU just managed to squeak by with a three-point win.

Senior Rafael Paal led the Cougar offense with 14 kills (.370) and added five digs and one ace, while Jonathan Alleman added 12 kills (.389) for the Cougars. Jaime Mayol hit a blistering personal-best .706 percentage with 13 kills and five blocks.

"Mayol was on fire tonight." BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "He had a really nice hitting evening, and he got some great blocks in as well."

On defense, junior newcomer David Hyte got his first major playing time of the season at middle blocker (in for injured starter Chris Gorny) and hit a .417 average with six kills and added three blocks and one ace.

For USC, Ian Gallagher hit a team-high 10 kills with two aces, while Blake Tippett added 8 kills for the Trojans.

USC was serving with a 29-28 lead in the first game, but couldn't shut out the Cougars. In the second game, BYU overcame an 11-13 deficit by taking a 6-0 run for the lead it never relinquished. In game three, the Trojans were down early at 12-5 but came back to a one-point deficit at 18-17. BYU took over at that point and went on a 12-7 run to put the game away at 30-24 and win the match 3-0.

BYU and USC play again Saturday night (Mar. 1) at 7 p.m. in Los Angeles.

Volleyball Box Score
                        2003 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
           Brigham Young vs USC (Feb 28, 2003 at Los Angeles, 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......  3|  6   2  11  .364|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  4  2|  0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  3|  4   0   4 1.000| 43|  0   4|  0|  6| 1  1  0|  2
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  3| 13   1  17  .706|  0|  0   2|  2|  4| 1  4  0|  0
 8  David Hyte..........  3|  6   1  12  .417|  0|  1   3|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  3| 14   4  27  .370|  4|  1   4|  4|  5| 0  1  0|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  3| 12   5  18  .389|  3|  1   3|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  0
 1  PATTERSON, Casey....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 4  Joe Hillman.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 55  13  89  .472| 50|  3  18|  6| 24| 2 16  2|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  5  31  .387   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  22  3  30  .633   Brigham Young....... 33 30 30  10-3, 10-3 MPSF
   3  16  5  28  .393   USC................. 31 27 24  3-13, 1-10 MPSF
    USC                    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  Blake Tippett.......  3|  8   4  16  .250|  0|  0   2|  1|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 8  Mark Dusharme.......  3|  7   3  12  .333|  0|  2   4|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 10 Josh Day............  3|  6   2  12  .333|  0|  0   1|  1|  0| 1  2  1|  0
 11 Phil Peterson.......  2|  7   6  17  .059|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 14 Miles McGann........  3|  1   0   2  .500| 32|  2   2|  0|  3| 0  2  0|  1
 15 Ian Gallagher.......  3| 10   6  27  .148|  0|  2   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  1
 1  J.T. Gilmour........  1|  1   0   1 1.000|  8|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 3  Derek Otte..........  3|  1   1   5  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 6  Joao Grangeiro......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0
 12 Peter Jordan........  1|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 42  22  93  .215| 42|  6  11|  3| 19| 1  4  1|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 3.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  9  38  .237   Site: Los Angeles, Calif. (Lyon Center)
   2  13  6  30  .233   Date: Feb 28, 2003   Attend: 500   Time: 1:28
   3  11  7  25  .160   Referees: Kim Pickering, Marvin Hall