Blocking Key in Cougar Win

NORTHRIDGE -- Third-ranked BYU out-blocked host CS Northridge 12.5 to 6.5 to sweep the Matadors 30-23, 32-30, 30-24 in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest in the Matadome.

The win improves BYU's record to 16-5 (14-3 MPSF) on the season, while Northridge falls 14-9 (9-8 MPSF) on the year. The Cougars hit .422 (48-13-83) to the Matadors' .161 (39-35-87) and blocked nearly twice as much in the match for the win.

"We were able to put up a bigger block and have two guys against them many times," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "We were able to pull some really nice blocks on them. We blocked four balls in a row to get a nice lead in the third game and it all went from there."

Michael Burke and Jonathan Alleman led the blocking with six block assists each, aided by David Hyte with five and setter Carlos Moreno with four blocks. Moreno also registered 44 of the team's 45 assists on the night and added a match-high four aces.

Senior Rafael Paal led the BYU attack with 14 kills on the night, while Alleman and Jaime Mayol both chipped in double-digit kills with 11 and 12, respectively.

A key for the Cougars was holding the Matadors' top two hitters, Joe Nargi and Nils Nielsen, to a combined nine kills and .000 hitting percentage. Only three Matadors hit over .091, including Scott Arneson who came off the bench to hit a team-high 12 kills with a .450 average.

BYU hit .600 (18-3-25) to take game one 30-23 as Paal and Mayol each had five kills. After hitting .074 in the first game, the Matadors came back to hit .312 (17-7-32) in game two as Arneson knocked down five kills, but BYU had some crucial blocks at the end of the game to earn the 32-30 win. The Cougars ended all suspense in game three as they responded to hit .407 to .071 for Northridge and closed out the match 3-0.

BYU and Northridge will play another MPSF match Saturday night at 7 p.m. in the Matadome.

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                              Volleyball Box Score
                        2003 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
   Brigham Young vs No. 10 CS Northridge (Mar 21, 2003 at Northridge, 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|  8   1  11  .636|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  6  0|  0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  3|  0   1   1-1.000| 44|  4   5|  1|  3| 0  4  0|  2
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  3| 12   3  17  .529|  0|  0   1|  2|  1| 0  1  0|  0
 8  HYTE, David.........  3|  3   0   5  .600|  0|  0   3|  0|  1| 0  5  0|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  3| 14   4  28  .357|  1|  1   5|  1|  3| 0  3  1|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  3| 11   4  21  .333|  0|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  6  1|  0
 14 Nielson, Rob........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn.....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  1|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 48  13  83  .422| 45|  5  17|  6| 19| 0 25  2|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  3  25  .600   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  17  8  31  .290   Brigham Young....... 30 32 30  16-4, 14-3
   3  13  2  27  .407   No. 10 CS Northridge 23 30 24  14-9, 9-8
    No. 10 CS Northridge   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  Nielsen, Nils.......  3|  3   4  11 -.091|  0|  3   3|  1|  2| 1  0  0|  0
 3  Nargi, Joe..........  3|  6   5  16  .062|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 4  Waite, Brian........  3|  6   2  10  .400|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0
 5  Douglas, Stan.......  3|  7   3  12  .333|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0
 6  Tramblie, Ty........  2|  0   0   0  .000| 18|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 11 George, Tamer.......  3|  1   4   6 -.500|  0|  1   1|  1|  1| 0  1  0|  0
 8  Hanson, Cary........  3|  4   3  11  .091|  0|  2   1|  2|  1| 1  0  0|  0
 12 English, Doug.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 15 Allen, Billy........  2|  0   0   0  .000| 18|  0   1|  0|  2| 1  1  0|  1
 16 Arneson, Scott......  2| 12   3  20  .450|  1|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 17 Pedraza, Sebastian..  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 39  25  87  .161| 37|  6  12|  5| 19| 3  7  0|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12 10  27  .074   Site: Northridge, Calif. (The Matadome)
   2  17  7  32  .312   Date: Mar 21, 2003   Attend: 435   Time: 1:30
   3  10  8  28  .071   Referees: Verna Klubnikin, Marvin Hall