Errors Doom Cougars in Five-Game Thriller

PROVO -- In a match of momentum swings, the No. 3 BYU men's volleyball team lost a closely contested 30-27, 24-30, 32-30, 27-30, 11-15 decision to No. 10 Penn State late Saturday night in the Smith Fieldhouse. The loss drops the Cougars to 13-4 overall, while the Nittany Lions improve to 14-4.

"Our serves were pitiful," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "It's just agonizing watching us miss in our own house. They out-served us and out-received us in our own place. Especially under pressure."

With the BYU men's basketball team playing its final home game of the season across campus, the men's volleyball team started at a later than usual 9 p.m. Despite the questioning of the officiating on both side throughout the night, the match proved to be hard fought and emotional for the players on the court.

While each team split the first two games in decisive manners, BYU held the upper hand in most of the third game, but Penn State fought back to tie the game at 21-21 on a service error by Luka Slabe. The game would see-saw from there and the Nittany Lions fought to earn game point at 30-29, but the Cougars would fight back to take the game.

The fourth game was also closely contested and BYU's Jonathan Alleman led the Cougar charge with nine kills in the game, but the Nittany Lions held on to force a fifth and deciding game.

Penn State took to early lead in the final game and despite an encouraging crowd, the Cougars could not overcome their numerous service errors and struggling service returns.

In the end Penn State had only five players register kills, but all five were in double-digits, led by the righty-lefty tandem of Carlos Guerra and Zeljko Koljesar had 16 and 18 kills, respectively.

BYU had four players with double-digit kills led by Alleman with 18. Rafael Paal had 16 kills and Michael Burke had 13 kills with a match-high seven blocks. David Hyte, filling in for an injured Chris Gorny, had a career night with a career-best 12 kills with no attack errors. Hyte hit a match-high .750, tying him for the second best single-match mark in team history.

The Cougars had 28 service errors in the match. Penn State out-hit the Cougars .387 to .378, while BYU out-blocked the Nittany Lions 13.5-10.

The Cougars will next be in action when they host No. 4 UC Irvine next Friday and Saturday. Both matches are scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be played in the Smith Fieldhouse.

Volleyball Box Score
                        2003 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
        No. 10 Penn State vs Brigham Young (Mar 08, 2003 at Provo, Utah)
    No. 10 Penn State      |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  O'DELL, Dan.........  5|  0   2   2-1.000| 69|  0   0|  0|  6| 1  3  0|  0
 8  SLENKER, Zach.......  5| 14   7  27  .259|  0|  0   5|  0|  2| 1  1  0|  0
 9  GUERRA, Carlos......  5| 18   4  38  .368|  0|  1   3|  1|  7| 2  1  0|  0
 12 KOLJESAR, Zeljko....  5| 16   4  25  .480|  0|  2   9|  0|  6| 1  0  0|  0
 13 KEIL, Norman........  5| 15   1  19  .737|  1|  1   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0
 14 KOWAL, Keith........  5| 14   5  25  .360|  0|  0   1|  0|  7| 0  4  0|  0
 1  MATTEI, Ricky.......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  1| 10| 0  0  0|  0
 3  SCHNEIDER, Richard..  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 5  ROJAS, Rhonee.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 6  MATTHEWS, Nate......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 11 MEERSTEIN, Nate.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 77  24 137  .387| 73|  4  20|  2| 40| 5 10  0|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  6  30  .400   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14  6  30  .267   No. 10 Penn State... 27 30 30 30 15  14-4, 9-0 EIVA
   3  20  8  35  .343   Brigham Young....... 30 24 32 27 11  13-4, 11-3 MPSF
   4  17  3  31  .452
   5   8  1  11  .636
    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| 13   2  30  .367|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 2  5  0|  0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  5|  6   0  10  .600| 67|  0   6|  0|  5| 0  4  2|  0
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  4|  8   2  16  .375|  0|  0   1|  2|  2| 0  1  0|  0
 8  HYTE, David.........  5| 12   0  16  .750|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  4  0|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  5| 16   5  30  .367|  1|  1   8|  1|  4| 1  0  0|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  5| 18   6  31  .387|  2|  1   7|  0|  3| 0  3  1|  0
 1  PATTERSON, Casey....  4|  0   1   2 -.500|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0
 13 LAYTON, Tim.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  4|  0   0|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  3|  5   6  13 -.077|  1|  0   4|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 78  22 148  .378| 75|  2  28|  4| 30| 3 21  4|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  5  36  .361   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  11  7  28  .143   Date: Mar 08, 2003   Attend: 2310   Time: 2:30
   3  21  3  35  .514   Referees: LES CALLES, MAILE JEWKES, ERIN YAMASHITA
   4  20  6  38  .368
   5   8  1  11  .636