Cougars Complete Sweep of Tritons

SAN DIEGO -- The Cougars took sole possession of first place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with a 3-0 (30-27, 30-21, 30-26) win over UC San Diego Saturday night at RIMAC Arena. BYU, ranked No. 1 in the nation, is now 12-2 overall and 10-2 in the MPSF while the Tritons are 1-12 overall and 0-9 in the MPSF.

Russell Holmes led the Cougars with nine kills and eight blocks while hitting .438. All three numbers were match highs. The Cougars earned the sweep despite hitting only .238 for the match. BYU overcame the poor hitting with defense, recording 12.0 team blocks and 23 digs.

"We have some time to work on things now," BYU coach Peterson said. "We just need to get better. We have important matches coming up. We can't accept not playing great."

Brenden Bowe led UC San Diego with seven kills while Joseph Sexton had a match-high eight digs. The Tritons hit -.070 for the match and had 6.5 team blocks and 27 digs.

After Thursday's lopsided match, Saturday's proved more competitive. The Tritons took an early lead at 9-6 in game one before the Cougars went on a 5-0 run to take the lead. UC San Diego kept battling, coming back to tie the match at 16 and leading late in the game at 26-25. BYU prevailed by scoring five of the next six points for the 30-27 win, including a kill by Batista for the winning point. The Cougars hit .320 for the game and the Tritons hit .217.

BYU wasted little time in getting ahead in game two. With the score tied at six, the Cougars went on a 5-1 run to go ahead 11-7. The Tritons would get no closer than three the rest of the way and BYU ended the game on a 7-3 run to win, 30-21. The Cougars hit .379 and limited UC San Diego to -.120 hitting.

In the third, BYU capitalized on several Triton errors to jump out to a 9-3 lead. All nine Cougar points were scored on one UC San Diego service error and eight hitting errors, including two blocks by Holmes. The Tritons managed to stay close the rest of the way but their errors proved too difficult to overcome, winning 30-26. UC San Diego finished the game with 17 hitting errors and hit -.211.

The Cougars will have the next weekend off and then play Stanford at home, March 3 and 4.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
       #1 BYU Cougars vs UC San Diego (Feb 18, 2006 at La Jolla, Calif.)
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  CALA, Yosleyder.....  2|  6   1  11  .455|  0|  0   4|  1|  4| 0  2  0|  0|   7.0
 5  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  3|  0   0   2  .000| 26|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  2|   1.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  2|  6   5  12  .083|  0|  0   4|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   6.5
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  9   2  16  .438|  0|  0   6|  0|  1| 1  6  0|  0|  13.0
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  2|  4   1   7  .429|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  1|   5.5
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  6   3  17  .176|  0|  1   5|  0|  5| 0  1  1|  0|   7.5
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  2|  3   2   9  .111|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   3.5
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  2|  1   2   5 -.200|  0|  0   0|  1|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   1.5
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  2|  2   1   5  .200|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0|   3.0
 20 NEFF, Chip..........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  7|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  1|   1.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 37  17  84  .238| 33|  1  24|  3| 23| 1 22  2|  4|  50.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  6  25  .320   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15  4  29  .379   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 30 30  12-2, 10-2 mpsf
   3   8  7  30  .033   UC San Diego........ (0) 27 21 26  1-12, 0-9 MPSF
    UC San Diego           |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  REUTER, Mike........  3|  5   6  18 -.056|  2|  2   2|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   7.5
 7  DAZE, Jon...........  3|  2   4  10 -.200|  0|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  1  0|  0|   2.5
 13 BOWE, Brenden.......  2|  7   6  18  .056|  0|  0   4|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   7.5
 20 DIERDORFF, Brooks...  3|  0   1   4 -.250| 20|  0   3|  0|  6| 0  3  0|  0|   1.5
 21 WENDLER, John Mark..  3|  3   2   6  .167|  0|  0   6|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0|   4.5
 24 SMITH, Garret.......  3|  3   3   9  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  0|   4.0
 2  HARDY, Russ.........  2|  3   6  10 -.300|  0|  1   1|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   4.5
 9  SEXTON, Joseph......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  8| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 SAYERS, Chris.......  2|  3   4  11 -.091|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0|   3.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 26  32  86 -.070| 23|  3  19|  1| 27| 0 13  1|  0|  35.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  6  23  .217   Site: La Jolla, Calif. (RIMAC Arena)
   2   6  9  25 -.120   Date: Feb 18, 2006   Attend: 640   Time: 1:25
   3   9 17  38 -.211   Referees: Kent Kitade, Patsy Malta