BYU Upends UC Irvine in Four-Game Battle

IRVINE -- In its first competition on the road this month, the No. 4-ranked BYU men's volleyball picked up another win over ninth-ranked UC Irvine in a four-game series (30-23, 23-30, 30-24, 30-26), extending its winning streak to nine matches.

With the win, the Cougars improve to 10-3 overall on the season and 8-1 in MPSF play. The Anteaters dropped to 7-10 overall and 3-7 in league play.

"Even though we were moving our lineup around, the guys came in and did a good job for us," head coach Tom Peterson said. "We gave up some runs to UC Irvine, but made up for it in our hitting percentage. We can't relax on Saturday; we need to play better."

BYU hit .373 on the night, connecting on 58 kills out of 102 attempts. The Cougars started game one with a scorching .706 percentage, hitting 13 of 17 attempts with only one attack error.

Defense was a key for the team, racking up 31 digs and 11.5 total blocks compared with UCI's eight blocks and 22 digs. BYU made up some ground on defense when the team was struggling with serving. The Cougars missed 23 serves on the night with nine coming in the first game.

"We definitely need to be more consistent in our serving," Peterson said. "In some rotations, we couldn't see if we could win the point because we would miss our serve."

Giving the Cougars the lift they needed was freshman Aaron Ferre, who has rotated in Chris Gorny's spot when he sprained his ankle against Stanford. Ferre tied his career high with 10 kills out of 11 attempts, breaking his career hitting percentage with a blistering .909.

Leading in kills again was AVCA National Player of the Week Fernando Pessoa with 19 kills and four digs for the match. Senior Jon Alleman chipped in 11 kills, two aces and four digs in the match, recording BYU's second-best hitting percentage at .529.

In the second game, the team looked sluggish, hitting only .071 and recording 10 attack errors. Peterson said when the team breaks down on passing and serving, it makes a difference in hitting for the game. The Anteaters hit their best percentage in the second game at .310.

BYU picked up the heat in the last two games, eliminating mistakes and showing its offensive power with solid percentages, .429 and .414. Sophomore Victor Batista led the Cougars in blocking with six total blocks on the night and senior Joe Hillman added eight kills and five blocks.

BYU will face the Anteaters for another MPSF showdown on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Crawford Hall.

For detailed boxscore, click the pdf version link above.


                              Volleyball Box Score
                        2004 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
            BRIGHAM YOUNG vs UC Irvine (Feb 26, 2004 at Irvine, CA)
    BRIGHAM YOUNG          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  4|  3   1   5  .400| 44|  1   5|  0|  1| 0  0  1|  2|   4.0
 6  FERRE, Aaron........  4| 10   0  11  .909|  1|  1   3|  0|  4| 0  4  0|  0|  13.0
 11 HILLMAN, Joe........  4|  8   4  17  .235|  1|  0   0|  0|  6| 0  5  0|  0|  10.5
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  4| 11   2  17  .529|  1|  2   6|  3|  4| 1  2  0|  0|  15.0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  4| 19  12  37  .189|  1|  0   2|  0|  4| 0  3  3|  0|  20.5
 18 BATISTA, Victor.....  4|  7   1  14  .429|  1|  0   6|  0|  2| 1  5  1|  1|  10.5
 2  RANGEL, Steffin.....  1|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 3  Burke,Michael.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 8  HYTE, David.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn.....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1|  8| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 58  20 102  .373| 52|  4  23|  4| 31| 2 19  5|  3|  73.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  1  17  .706   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  12 10  28  .071   BRIGHAM YOUNG....... 30 23 30 30  10-3,8-1
   3  17  5  28  .429   UC Irvine........... 23 30 24 26  7-10,3-7
   4  16  4  29  .414
    UC Irvine              |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  Bemus, Spencer......  4|  5   3  14  .143|  0|  2   4|  0|  4| 1  3  3|  0|   9.5
 2  Pelzel, Jimmy.......  4| 19   6  35  .371|  0|  0   4|  1|  6| 0  0  0|  1|  19.0
 8  Reid, Brett.........  4|  0   1   1-1.000| 41|  1   3|  0|  2| 1  1  0|  1|   2.5
 14 Webber, Matt........  4| 12   8  26  .154|  1|  0   9|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0|  13.0
 15 Smith, David........  4|  6   3  15  .200|  0|  1   4|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0|   8.5
 16 Weichert, Kyle......  4|  8   2  18  .333|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0|   9.0
 6  Ford, Greg..........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  3|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  Spittle, Paul.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 18 Vincent, Eric.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   0.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 50  23 109  .248| 42|  4  25|  4| 22| 2 12  3|  2|  62.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  10  5  17  .294   Site: Irvine, CA (Crawford Court)
   2  13  4  29  .310   Date: Feb 26, 2004   Attend: 306   Time: 1:50
   3  15  8  34  .206   Referees: Larry Schwartz, Kim Pickering
   4  12  6  29  .207