Cougars Fall to Anteaters

IRVINE -- In a battle between No. 1 and No. 2, top-ranked BYU fell to UC Irvine 3-2 (24-30, 30-28, 30-27, 34-36, 13-15), ending its six-match win streak and falling out of first place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Cougars are now 14-3 overall and 12-3 in the MPSF while the Anteaters are 18-3 overall and 11-2 in league play.

"They put it together at the right times," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "We missed serves at the wrong times and at crucial points they seemed to get better. They outplayed us mentally."

The loss also ended the Cougars' 11-match win streak against Irvine. Going into the match, BYU had won 28 of 29 meetings between the teams.

Yosleyder Cala led BYU with a career, match and team season-high 32 kills while also contributing a match and career-high 14 digs. He also led the team with a match-high .444 (32-8-54) hitting percentage and added five blocks and two aces. Three other Cougars had double-digit kill totals, including Ivan Perez (14), Victor Batista (13) and Russell Holmes (10). Batista added a match and season-high 10 blocks. BYU hit .325 (80-27-163) for the match and had 44 digs and 19.0 blocks.

Matt Webber led Irvine with 25 kills while Jayson Jablonsky and Paul Spittle had 17 and 16 kills, respectively. Jablonsky added four acecs while Brian Thornton and Brent Asuka had 11 digs each and Spittle had 10. As a team, the Anteaters hit .268 (72-31-153) and had 47 digs and 10.0 blocks.

Irvine took game one 30-24 by out-hitting BYU .385 to .281. The Cougars then took control, winning back-to-back games to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

BYU won game two 30-28 while limiting the Anteaters to .156 hitting. In game two, the Cougars came alive offensively, hitting .579 (23-1-38).

The fourth game went back and forth as the teams traded points before Irvine pulled out a 36-34 win. The Anteaters won despite hitting just .194 compared to .306 for BYU. The Cougars were unable to regroup for game five, falling 15-13 and hitting just .083.

BYU will have a chance to take one back from Irvine tomorrow night.

"We'll see tomorrow whether or not we can contend for a national championship," Peterson said. "We need to come out and show we can bounce back from a tough loss."

The teams will play Saturday night at 6 p.m. at Crawford Court.


                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
             BYU Cougars vs UC Irvine (Mar 10, 2006 at Irvine, CA)
    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.....  5| 32   8  54  .444|  2|  2   7|  0| 14| 0  5  2|  0|  36.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  5| 14   7  41  .171|  2|  0   1|  2|  6| 0  7  0|  0|  17.5
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  5| 10   4  26  .231|  0|  0   5|  0|  2| 0  7  1|  0|  13.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  5|  3   0   5  .600| 71|  0   0|  0|  8| 1  3  0|  1|   5.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  5| 13   4  21  .429|  1|  0   3|  0|  2| 0 10  1|  0|  18.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  4|  2   1   4  .250|  0|  0   2|  1|  1| 0  1  0|  1|   2.5
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  5|  5   3  11  .182|  1|  0   4|  1|  3| 0  3  1|  0|   6.5
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  3|  8| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  2|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  3|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 80  27 163  .325| 77|  2  24| 10| 44| 1 36  5|  2| 101.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 19.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  6  32  .281   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15  6  33  .273   BYU Cougars......... (2) 24 30 30 34 13  14-3, 12-3
   3  23  1  38  .579   UC Irvine........... (3) 30 28 27 36 15  18-3, 11-2
   4  20  9  36  .306
   5   7  5  24  .083
    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
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  Thornton, Brian.....  5|  0   0   0  .000| 62|  1   2|  0| 11| 0  3  0|  1|   2.5
 10 Spittle, Paul.......  5| 16   5  33  .333|  0|  0   2|  1| 10| 0  2  2|  0|  17.0
 11 Jablonsky, Jayson...  5| 17   6  36  .306|  1|  4   3|  0|  7| 0  1  1|  0|  21.5
 13 Webber, Matt........  5| 25  11  50  .280|  0|  1   6|  0|  3| 1  2  0|  0|  28.0
 15 Smith, David........  5|  8   6  19  .105|  0|  1   2|  0|  2| 1  4  2|  0|  12.0
 21 Harrell, Aaron......  5|  6   3  15  .200|  2|  2   1|  0|  1| 0  4  0|  0|  10.0
 8  Asuka, Brent........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  5|  0   0|  1| 11| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 12 Simpson, Brett......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 18 Ammerman, Ryan......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 72  31 153  .268| 70| 10  17|  2| 47| 2 16  5|  1|  92.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  5  26  .385   Site: Irvine, CA (Bren Center)
   2  15 10  32  .156   Date: Mar 10, 2006   Attend: 2817   Time: 2:35
   3  18  3  38  .395   Referees: Mike Farish, Bob Oshita
   4  17 10  36  .194
   5   7  3  21  .190