No. 1 Pepperdine Toppled by No. 3 BYU

MALIBU -- In their fight for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title, the BYU Cougars rallied back from a 2-0 deficit to beat top-ranked Pepperdine 26-30, 21-30, 30-27, 30-19, 16-14 in the Firestone Fieldhouse Friday night.

With the win, BYU improves to 17-4 in the MPSF and 19-5 overall, while Pepperdine falls to 18-3 (21-4 overall), taking the Cougars one step closer to tying the Waves for the conference title and earning the privilege of hosting all three rounds of the MPSF tournament.

"It was a great comeback," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "Some guys off the bench came in and did a wonderful job. Pepperdine is the best blocking team in the nation, and we out-blocked them tonight."

Blocking was key for the Cougars as they held the Waves to 7.0 blocks on the night while controlling the net with 11.5 blocks of their own, snapping Pepperdine's 10-match home win streak. Michael Burke led the Cougars with five block assists, while Chris Gorny Carlos Moreno each added four.

Rafael Paal led the Cougar attack with 21 kills and chipped in four blocks, seven digs and four aces, while Burke, Gorny and Luka Slabe each added double-digit kills to bolster the offense.

The Cougars were also hot with their serving, registering 10 aces to Pepperdine's two. Carlos Moreno guided the team with 59 assists and added eight digs.

The Waves came out strong in the first two games, hitting .467 and .407, respectively, to level the Cougars 2-0 right off the bat. BYU kicked it into gear to win game three and caught its momentum going into the fourth game.

Pepperdine was overcome with errors in game four, recording a meager .056 attack percent with 11 kills and 9 errors on 36 attempts while the Cougars dominated, hitting .414 with 15 kills and only 3 errors on 29 attempts to tie the match.

Game five was intense as the Cougars and Waves battled for the win. BYU came out to score first and got as far as a 7-4 lead, but Sean Rooney Brad Keenan rallied the Waves with some key blocks and kills to get back in the game. A Mike Gledhill block gave the Waves their first lead at 14-13, but Burke put in a spike off a Moreno set to tie it back up at 14. Slabe got the Cougars the lead with a much-needed ace, then Burke again took the set from Moreno and spiked the ball for the win.

For Pepperdine, three players registered double--digit kills, including Keenan with 21 (.594) and Rooney with 17 (.167).

The Cougars and Waves face off again Saturday night at 7 p.m. (PST) in Malibu to determine the MPSF title and hosting privileges for the conference tournament.

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                              Volleyball Box Score
                        2003 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
     Brigham Young vs No. 1 Pepperdine (Apr 11, 2003 at Malibu, California)
    Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  PATTERSON, Casey....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 4  HILLMAN, Joe........  3|  6   3  16  .188|  0|  1   0|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  5|  3   0   7  .429| 59|  2   5|  0|  8| 0  4  0|  0
 6  GORNY, Chris........  5| 12   4  19  .421|  0|  0   1|  0|  5| 0  4  0|  0
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  2|  1   3   8 -.250|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  5| 21   9  45  .267|  4|  4   2|  1|  7| 1  3  0|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  2|  4   4  14  .000|  0|  1   3|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0
 15 BURKE, Michael......  5| 14   2  23  .522|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  5  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  4| 11   4  24  .292|  0|  2   2|  0|  5| 0  1  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 72  29 156  .276| 64| 10  15|  2| 37| 1 21  0|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  8  35  .200   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  13  9  33  .121   Brigham Young....... 26 21 30 30 16  19-5, 17-4 MPSF
   3  19  7  42  .286   No. 1 Pepperdine.... 30 30 27 19 14  21-4, 18-3 MPSF
   4  15  3  29  .414
   5  10  2  17  .471
    No. 1 Pepperdine       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  HEIN, Andy..........  5|  9   2  14  .500|  1|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0
 4  GLEDHILL, Mike......  5|  6   5  20  .050|  0|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  2  0|  0
 5  ENDSLEY, Kevin......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 6  KEENAN, Brad........  5| 21   2  32  .594|  2|  1   5|  0|  2| 0  5  0|  0
 7  WINTERS, Fred.......  5| 12   7  31  .161|  1|  0   4|  3| 10| 0  1  0|  0
 8  DE WOLFF, Arist.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 9  KA, James...........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 11 MAYER, John.........  5|  3   0   4  .750| 56|  0   1|  1|  6| 0  2  0|  0
 12 ROONEY, Sean........  5| 17   9  48  .167|  0|  1   1|  2|  4| 1  0  0|  0
 14 COATS, Dhiraj.......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  4| 13| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 68  25 149  .289| 60|  2  13| 10| 42| 1 12  0|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  4  30  .467   Site: Malibu, California (Firestone Fieldhouse)
   2  16  5  27  .407   Date: Apr 11, 2003   Attend: 1523   Time: 2:15
   3  12  5  38  .184   Referees: Ron Stahl, Marvin Hall
   4  11  9  36  .056
   5  11  2  18  .500